THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE 

AND OTHER SERMONS. 



I OF CON ORS* 8 
WASHINOTOI 




DAVID JAMES 'BURRELL, D.D., 

Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed {Dutch) Church at Fifth Avenue 
and 2Qtti Street, New York. 



OCT 15-1895 



2fc 



IS 



NEW YORK: 

WILBUR B. KETCHAM, 

2 Cooper Union. 




Copyright, 1895, 
By Wilbur B. Ketcham. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The sermons in this book were taken by dictation 
after their delivery, and are briefer than in their 
original form, The purpose has been to make them 
clear, direct and adapted to the needs of the average 
man. It is humbly hoped that, however they may 
fall short of acceptance in other quarters, they may 
be found helpful to such as are seeking truth for com- 
mon uses. 

The supreme end of preaching is to answer two 
questions which throb in the universal heart, to wit, 
" What shall I do to be saved ? " and " How may I 
grow unto the full stature of manhood ? " There is no 
salvation except by faith in Jesus Christ, and the only 
hope of character is in following him. In preaching, 
therefore, as in living, we must make everything of 
Christ. He is first, last, midst and all in all. 

3 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



The Spirit of the Age, ----- 7 

The Sons of Thunder, - 17 

Yom Kippur, - - - - - 26 

The Fall of the Bastille, - 34 

The Doctrine of Election, - 42 

Why We Love the Church of God, - - - 51 

Christ and the Bible, - - - - - 61 

Is Jesus the Christ ? - 75 

Stumbling-Blocks, ------ 86 

A Sermon from the Gallows, - 95 

In the Mount of Transfiguration, - 104 
The Initiation of Peter into the Mysteries of the 

Faith, ------ 113 

The Taxing Under Cyrenius. A Christmas Medita- 
tion, - - - - - - - 123 

The New Year, - 132 

The Sunday Saloon, - - - - 142 

The Waldenses, ----- 152 

But Grow, ------- 163 

The Gleaning of the Grapes of Ephraim, - - 173 

The Pronoun of Faith. A Sacramental Meditation, 184 

The Tabernacle, - 193 

Treasures of the Snow, - - - - 203 

What is Religion ? - - - - - 211 

Woman and the Sabbath, - 222 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

The Purple Cup, - 235 

Disabled by Unbelief, - - - - 245 

The Story of the Three Would-be Disciples, - 256 

By the Brook in the Gorge, - 267 

The Open Sepulchre, - - - - - 276 

I Am Debtor, ------ 285 

On this Rock will I Build My Church, - - 297 

The Power of the Keys, ----- 306 

Masquerading, - - - - - 317 

Whom the Son Makes Free, - 326 

The Salvation Army, ----- 335 

The Covenanters, ----- 347 

The Six Sorrows of St. Paul, - 359 

He Shall So Come, ----- 370 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



"And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, 
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a 
golden girdle."— Rev i: 13. 

We are accustomed to think of the Golden Age as 
in the remote past. The poets have celebrated a time 
of primitive simplicity when the earth yielded her in- 
crease spontaneously, when men suffered from no pains 
or diseases and passed from the earth in gentle sleep. 
Hesiod tells of a gradual decadence from the Golden 
through the Silver, the Brazen and the Heroic to the 
Iron Age which marks the lowest level of history, the 
race being given over to misfortune and sunken in 
degenerate vices. In Milton's Hymn on the Nativity 
of Christ he holds us for a time entranced with the 
music of spheres and angels, and then arrests our 
contemplation in these words : 

" For if such holy song 
Enwrap our fancy long, 

Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold." 

But time need not run back to fetch it, for the Gold- 
en Age is before us. We are drawing nearer to it 
every day. The century in which we are living is 
better than any which has gone before it. 

" We are living, we are dwelling 
In a grand and awful time; 
In an age on ages telling 
To be living is sublime." 
(7) 



8 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



If required to characterize our century in a single 
word, we should call it the century of light. The 
golden candlestick is all ablaze. This is true even in 
our more material life. It is scarcely a hundred 
years since the homes of the people were illuminated 
by those primitive lamps which the Scotch call 
"crusies," such as are taken from the Roman tombs. 
In 1783 the flat wick was invented by Leger of 
Paris. Then came illuminating gas. In 1801 Sir 
Walter Scott wrote from London to a friend in the 
highlands, " There is a fool here who is trying to 
light the city with smoke." To-day the lightnings 
are made to play upon our children's spelling-books : 
Jupiter Tonans holds the torch for us. 

A similar advance has been going on in the moral 
province. Light is only another name for civiliza- 
tion. Crime loves darkness. Miasms arise after sun- 
down. Truth is light, goodness is light, righteous- 
ness is light ; and, blessed be God, the world is being 
flooded with it. 

All light in the natural world is from the sun; the 
moon and stars, the blazing torch, fire-flies, glow- 
worms, all alike borrow their radiance from the great 
central orb. So is it in the moral world ; all illumi- 
nation is from God, for God is light. His Church is 
the golden candlestick through which he shines ; as 
it is written " Let your light so shine before men that 
they may see your good works and glorify God." 

I. But to be more specific we may characterize the 
present time as The Age of Reason. The man makes 
his protest against the voice of the masses ; the in- 
dividual against the authority of the powers that 
ought not to be. 

" The most stupendous thought," says Bancroft 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



9 



" that ever was conceived by man, such as had never 
been dared by Socrates or the Academy, by Aristotle 
or the Stoics, took possession of Descartes in his 
meditations on a November night by the banks of the 
Danube. His mind separated itself from everything 
besides, and in the consciousness of its own freedom 
stood over against tradition, all received opinion, all 
knowledge, all existence, except itself, thus asserting 
the principle of Individuality as the key-note of all 
coming philosophy and political institutions. Noth- 
ing was to be received as truth by man which did not 
convince his reason. A new world was opened up in 
which every man was thenceforth to be his own phi- 
losopher." 

Think! Think for yourself. Let no man, no Synod, 
no political or ecclesiastical council do your thinking 
for you. This is the spirit of Protestantism. The pro- 
test is, Firsts against the authority of the civil power 
over heart and conscience. It found utterance when 
Peter and John were forbidden by the Jewish court to 
preach the Gospel in the porch of Solomon's Temple: 
" Whether it be right," said they, "to hearken unto 
you more than to God, judge ye ; for we cannot but 
declare the truth." The protest is, Second, against 
the authority of the Church. It found expression 
on a certain December day when Luther marched 
out of the gate of Wittenberg followed by a com- 
pany of independent thinkers and burned the Pope's 
Bull. So far so good. The persecutions of the ages 
have arisen from an effort on the part of the secular 
and the ecclesiastical powers to tyrannize over the 
right of personal judgment in matters pertaining to 
God. 

But here we pause ; in all great moral move- 



IO 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



ments the pendulum is sure to swing too far. To- 
day we mark a Third protest, to-wit : against the au- 
thority of the Word of God. The skipper of a ves- 
sel on the high seas may be excused for rejecting the 
counsel of every passing fisherman, but if his inde- 
pendence leads him to throw over chart and compass, 
he shows himself a fool. The Bible is our only chart, 
prayer is our magnetic needle and God himself is 
our north star. At this moment there is said to be a 
revival in Romanism among some of the European 
nations. The reason is plain: For years many theo- 
logical teachers in the universities have busied them- 
selves in an attempt to overthrow the inerrancy of 
Holy Writ, but the human mind must have authority 
to rest on; if not the Bible, then the Pope. It were 
far better to lean upon a spurious infallibility of the 
decrepit old father on the Tiber, than to acknowledge 
no authority at all. Pope or Bible, one or the other 
it must be. 

The historian Guizot set out as a free-thinker. 
He said, " Reason will solve all." But as his years 
increased he found himself in a whirlwind of conflict- 
ing doubts and perplexities, and finally, with un- 
speakable joy, he fled to the authority of the Scrip- 
tures as the Word of God. 

II. The present time may still further be charac- 
terized as The Age of Humanity. There are those 
who say the Church has dreamed too much of 
heaven; it would be better to make a heaven here 
and now. And indeed it is the function of the Church 
to touch human life at every point and to make this 
world a better place to live in. 

There never was a time since the foundation of 
the world when so much attention was given to soci- 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



II 



ology. This is as it should be. The Church has to 
do with society. It has never, indeed, been wholly 
oblivious of its responsibilities at this point. The 
home, the public school and the hospital are the 
three great pillars that uphold the social fabric, and 
these three are Christian institutions. Their lights 
are kindled at the golden candlestick. If men are 
more kindly disposed toward one another than they 
used to be, it is by reason of the fact that the leaven 
of the gospel has been leavening the lump of human 
life. Our Lord himself set the example when he 
went down to the porches of Bethesda where lay the 
blind and halt and withered. As his disciples we 
must needs go after him to the homes of the poor 
and erring and the sorrowing. It is our business to 
do good as we have opportunity unto all men. 

The Church has also to do with the body politic. 
"Give me the penny," said Jesus. "Whose image 
and superscription is this?" "Caesar's." "Render 
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 
the things that are God's.*' There are things going 
on in the city of New York that ought to rouse the 
indignation of every follower of Christ. It might be 
well at this juncture, instead of confining our dreams 
to the pearly gates and golden streets of the New 
Jerusalem, were we to breathe a little of the ozone of 
heaven into the life of New York. Theft, unclean- 
ness, licensed fraud and nameless crime are all about 
us ; and the sorrow of it is that our custodians 
of law and order are the head and front of the whole 
offending. It is the business of the Church to punc- 
ture this abscess ; it is the function of the gospel to 
heal it. 

The Church has a duty to discharge with re- 



12 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



spect to every current reform that looks to the 
betterment of the community. The overthrow of in- 
temperance and of the social evil, the elevation of 
womanhood, the vindication of the rights of child- 
hood, the sanitation of the slums, all these are within 
her province. The gospel has an application not 
merely to our spiritual nature, but to every point in 
the circumference of human life. 

But here again the pendulum swings too far. 
Much of what is called Christian sociology is mere 
sentimental vaporing. There are some things to be 
remembered. One is, that the soul is of infinitely more 
value than the body. To heal a man's physical in- 
firmities in the name of the Lord Jesus while neg- 
lecting the far more important matter of his spiritual 
welfare, is unspeakable folly. " For what shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul ? " And another thing to be remembered is, 
that eternity is longer than time. To make the pres- 
ent life sweet and wholesome, to beautify the lower 
home, to cultivate the mind in love of things charm- 
ing and picturesque ; what are these indeed when 
one reflects that life is only an handbreath here, 
while the life hereafter is for incalculable aeons. The 
central thought of the gospel is salvation. The 
greatest need of man is always a spiritual need. The 
question of supreme importance -now, as always, is 
this, What shall I do to be saved ? — saved from the 
shame, the bondage and the penalty of sin. Bethesda 
is not the central fact of Christianity. Calvary is its 
centre. " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
The minister who in his eagerness to keep abreast of 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



*3 



the age, devotes himself to social science to the neg- 
lect of his more important work, is blind to the fun- 
damental principle of the gospel of Christ. We are 
to seek, first of all, the Kingdom of God. 

A long time ago there was in Scotland a chain- 
bridge famous for its massive strength. A French 
engineer came over and took its dimensions, and in 
due time built a similar structure on the Seine at 
Marly. It was, however, much lighter and airier than 
its prototype. When its gates were opened to the 
multitude it began to sway to and fro ominously be- 
neath their foot-fall and presently gave way. The 
trouble with this bridge was that its architect had 
omitted the middle bolt, thinking it but a clumsy 
feature at best. There are those who are making a 
similar mistake in these days in their eagerness to 
press the application of the gospel upon the temporal 
wants of the people. The middle bolt of the whole 
gospel fabric is the cross of Jesus Christ — God's plan 
for the deliverance of the race from sin. 

III. The time in which we are living may still 
further be characterized as The Age of Spiritual Dy- 
namics. We are fond of calling it the Missionary Cen- 
tury. More has been done for the propagation of the 
gospel among the nations in this century than in all 
that have gone before it. 

The key-note of the great propaganda is the word 
"Go!" Our Lord came back after his crucifixion 
and marked out the campaign for the conquest of the 
world. He said to his disciples, " Go ye everywhere 
and proclaim the gospel." But for eighteen hundred 
years, the Church seemed unwilling to believe 
that he really meant it. Then came William Carey, 
the consecrated cobbler, and with him other like- 



14 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



minded ones who heard the Master's marching orders 
and were prepared to take him at his word. So the 
glorious work began. No sooner did the Church 
hearken to that injunction, "Go ! " than the doors of 
the nations began to fly open. To-day a war is being 
waged between the latest born of constitutional 
governments and the last remaining of the old bar- 
baric sovereignties. What is to be the outcome ? 
Japan will rise to the position of a first-class power, 
and if so it will be by virtue of her acquiescence in 
the principles of Christian civilization. The great 
wall of China will fall down as flat as the ancient 
walls of Jericho, that the army of the cross may enter 
to possess the land. Four hundred millions of people 
will be made accessible to the good news of salvation. 

In the meantime the last of the world's continents 
is being prepared for the same gracious incursion. 
It is likely that the centre of operations for the next 
century will be Africa ; the great battle of Armaged- 
don will be fought there. If the western edge of that 
continent were laid so as to touch our Pacific coast, 
its eastern edge would overlap Ireland. Its popu- 
lation is four times that of America. All this is fallow 
ground waiting the seed sowing of the truth. 
Ethiopia is stretching out her hands toward God. 
Thus the gates are all unbarred. No sooner did the 
Church hearken to the word " Go ! " than God him- 
self uttered the open sesame which sprung the bolts 
and rolled back the mighty doors. 

And along with this we mark the fulfilment of the 
glorious promise. The missionaries have gone no- 
where alone ; the Master has always accompanied 
them with his benediction. It was a wonderful thing 
that he said, " All power is given unto me in heaven 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 



and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and evangelize all 
nations ; teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you 4 , and lo, I am with you 
alway even unto the end of the world." Mark the 
comprehensiveness of that word — all power, all na- 
tions, all things, all the days. 

Missions a failure ! Nay, they are approved by 
the logic of history as a glorious success every way. 
At the beginning of this century the East India 
Company said, " The sending of missionaries to evan- 
gelize India is the maddest dream that ever entered a 
human mind." Sir Rivers Thompson, the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Bengal, says, " Christian missions have 
accomplished more for the good of India than all 
other agencies combined." How could it be other- 
wise ? The word of the omnipotent God is pledged 
to the work. 

It is a calamity for any man to be behind the time. 
No man, however, can be abreast of the age who does 
not fall in with this great movement for the evan- 
gelization of the nations. 

" There's a fount about to stream, 
There's a light about to gleam, 
There's a midnight darkness changing into day ; 
Men of thought and men of action, 
Clear the way ! " 

It is glorious to live now. The gleaning of the 
grapes of Ephraim is better than the whole vintage of 
Abiezer. Farewell to the past, to the darkness of 
vice and superstition, to ignorance and oppression ; 
and welcome the future — the light of the morning, 
the rattling down of the strongholds of iniquity, the 
shoutings of the sons of God ! 

But wonderful as is the present time, a greater 



l6 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 

century awaits us. "I hear the sound of conflict 
yonder," said blind John of Bohemia at the Battle 
of Crecy. He was old and blind and wounded unto 
death. His French troops were wavering ; he called 
to them, " I hear the sound of glorious conflict 
yonder ! Ye are my vassals ; gather about me close, 
and lead me on so far that I may swing my sword 
once more ! " Oh ! who that believes in God, in the 
glorious promise of the gospel, in the logic of events, 
does not long to see what the future shall bring forth 
to the glory of God ? I hear the footfall of a mighty 
company turning the spur of Olivet, and those that 
go before cast their garments in the way and join 
with those that follow after, " Hosanna ! Hosanna ! 
to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord." I hear the ringing of bells 
far yonder : bells of heaven and all the bells of earth 
echoing back their welcome to the Golden Age 
when Jesus shall reign from the river to the ends of 
the earth. 

" Ring out the old, ring in the new ; 
Ring out the false, ring in the true ! 
Ring out old shapes of foul disease, 
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; 
Ring out the thousand wars of old, 
Ring in the thousand years of peace ! 
Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The larger heart, the kindlier hand ; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be ! " 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



"And* James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James ; and he sun 
named them Boanerges, which is, the sons of thunder." — Mark iii. 17. 

Close to the water's edge of Lake Tiberias dwelt 
the fisherman Zebedee. The scene before his cottage 
was such as to inspire thoughts of a more glorious 
world and a nobler life than were suggested by his 
boats and nets — " a burnished mirror set in a frame of 
rounded hills and rugged mountains rising and roll- 
ing backward and upward " to where hoary Hermon 
seemed to touch the skies. The fisherman and his 
good wife Salome had prospered in temporal things. 
The Lord, moreover, had blessed them with two 
noble sons, now in the early vigor of manhood, giv- 
ing promise of eminence and usefulness. They had 
been instructed in the village schools and under the 
tuition of the rabbis they had made themselves fa- 
miliar, not only with the Law and Prophets, but with 
current systems of philosophy. Thrice every year 
they had gone up to Jerusalem with their father to 
attend the great national festivals. There they had 
watched the burning of the sacrifices, those flaming 
prophecies of the long-looked-for Messiah, and had 
heard the stately chanting of the Messianic psalms, 
and had stood, wondering and dreaming, in Solomon's 
porch under the vine with its golden clusters typify- 
ing the glory of Messiah's reign. Thus they learned 

(17) 



i8 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



to watch the future for his coming. From Purim 
and Passover they returned to their fishing boats, to 
see in every daybreak, in every kindling splendor of 
the clouds above Hermon, a new prophecy of the 
rising of the Son of Righteousness with healing in 
his beams. The elder of these brothers was energetic 
and fearless. He loved to be abroad upon the lake 
when the winds came rushing down the narrow de- 
files and lashed its waters into fury. Not so the 
younger ; his happiest days were when the sea 
was restful and untroubled. Yet in his gentle spirit 
there was a slumbering fire, and time would show him 
to be " not a dreamer among shadows, but a man 
among men." 

In those days came John the Baptist preaching 
and saying, " Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand." The two brothers, in company with 
many of their townsmen, went over to the fords of 
Bethabara to see and hear. There among the rocks 
by the swift river stood the hermit-priest in the midst 
of an eager multitude of listeners. " I am the voice 
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way 
of the Lord ! The time is at hand. I indeed bap- 
tize you with water ; but there cometh one after me, 
whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. He 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. 
Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance." 
So saying, he baptized them in the river and bade 
them watch. The brothers were thrilled with ex- 
pectancy, believing the fulfilment of their long- 
cherished hopes was nigh at hand. One day as they 
were standing with the multitude on the river bank, 
the Baptist pointed to a solitary figure passing near 
by and said, " Behold, the Lamb of God ! " They 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



I 9 



followed him at once. " Rabbi, where dwellest 
thou?" "Come and see." And they abode with 
him that night. A night with Jesus ! Did ever a 
soul in the gloaming or in the night watches hold 
tryst with him, and not discover that he was the 
veritable Son of God ? But they Could not tarry long. 
It was the summer season of labor, and returning to 
Bethsaida they betook themselves to their usual tasks. 

One morning they were seated by the shore, wash- 
ing their nets. On a sudden, he stood beside them, 
and glancing toward their nets and out upon the 
waters — types of life's larger field and more important 
work — he said, " Follow me, and I will make you 
fishers of men." This was their formal ordination to 
the apostolate. And they rose and followed him. 
From this time forward they were with him in all 
the important events of his ministry. They saw his 
wonderful works of healing, they heard him speak 
as never man spake of the eternal verities, they 
listened to his sermon on the mount in which he set 
forth the qualifications of citizenship in the kingdom 
of truth and righteousness. As time passed they were 
more and more confirmed in the thought that he had 
come to set up an earthly throne. On one occasion, 
their mother, Salome, asked of Jesus, that her two 
sons might sit " the one on his right hand, the other 
on the left in his kingdom." And he answered, 
" Ye know not what ye ask " ; and turning to them, 
" Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of ? and can ye 
be baptized with my baptism?" They answered, 
" We can." Little did they dream how their wish 
was to be fulfilled. 

As they continued to follow Jesus they, with 
Peter, made up " the chosen three." They dwelt 



20 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



with him in the glory of Mount Tabor, when his 
garments were white and glistering and his face 
as the sun shineth in his strength. They were 
with him in his triumphal entry when the com- 
pany going on before and following after cried, 
" Hosanna ! Hosanna ! to him that cometh in the 
name of the Lord." They were with him in the 
upper chamber on the night of the last passover, 

"... that dark, that doleful night, 

When all the powers of hell arose 
Against the Son of God's delight." 

In the shadow of the olive trees at Gethsemane 
they heard his prayer, " O my Father ! if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me." One of them saw him 
nailed to the accursed tree when the light went out 
and the darkness was pierced by that strange cry, 
" Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ? " And was this the 
cup of which they were to drink and was this the 
baptism with which they were to be baptized ? They 
had not long to wait. In the year 44 the sword of 
persecution was drawn by Herod Agrippa against 
the followers of Christ. James was apprehended. 
So calm and fearless was his demeanor before his 
judges, that Clement of Alexandria says that his 
accuser greeted him with a brotherly kiss, saying, 
" Thou hast persuaded me that Jesus is the Christ ! " 
He was led out beyond the walls ; there was a swift 
flash of the blade and his head rolled from the block. 
He had drained the purple cup ; he had passed under 
the baptism of blood. 

But John lived on. Nero kindled the living torches, 
smearing the disciples with pitch and burning them 
to illumine the revels in his garden, but the fire passed 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



21 



over him. Titus marched against Jerusalem, reduced 
it by the slow process of starvation and reared a line 
of awful crosses on the surrounding hills, but this 
calamity also passed over him. It was not without a 
peculiar fitness that in course of time the Benjamin 
of the Twelve became the patriarch of the multiply- 
ing churches. He was settled as " Episcopos " of 
the Ephesian congregation and from that Gibraltar 
of paganism he sent out his messages of encourage- 
ment to the scattered saints. It was during this 
pastorate that he wrote the "Gospel of St. John." 
There is a tradition that no rain fell upon the un- 
covered oratory while he wrote this marvellous pre 
sentation of the divineness of Jesus. The emblem of 
St. John's Gospel is the eagle — " bird of the loftiest 
flight, the keenest eye, the surest nest among the 
cliffs." The Apostle's voice went crashing through 
current systems of unbelief, making havoc of sciences 
and philosophies alike with its solemn declaration : 
"In the beginning was the Word, and *he Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. And the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us." 

In the year 64 the demon of persecution again 
awoke and John was one of its victims. He was 
banished to the lonely Island of Patmos in the 
Aegsean Sea. The event is commemorated in an 
old Latin hymn : 

" Through Rome's infuriate city, 

From Caesar's judgment chair, 
They drag Christ's loved disciple, 

The Saint with silver hair. 
To desert islands banished, 

With God the exile dwells, 
And sees the future glory 

His wondrous writing tells." 



22 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



I. We are accustomed to think of John as The 
Apostle of Love. Our conception of any character is 
usually based on a single episode. The Virgin Mary 
is known to us by her posture in the annunciation — 
the adoring upturned face, so well translated by 
Raphael, and the words, " Behold thy handmaid ! Be 
it unto me even as thou wilt." Paul on Mars Hill, 
his eye enkindled with ardor and his mean presence 
glorified by the enthusiasm of a noble cause ; Peter 
declaring to the multitude on the day of Pentecost 
that their hands are red with the innocent blood of 
Jesus ; Judas in the garden kissing the Saviour's 
cheek ; these are character sketches standing out 
from the narrative and catching the eye like the 
masterpieces in the gallery of the Louvre. What 
scene in the life of the Apostle John will best describe 
him ? See him in the upper chamber reclining on the 
Saviour's breast, his face all radiant with love. 
We are reminded how Cyrus at a certain festival 
gave to each of his officers a costly gift : to one a 
jewelled garment, to one a golden cup, to another 
a badge of martial prowess ; then turning to his 
favorite, he put his arm around him, saying " Chry- 
santes, thou hast my love." This was the distinc- 
tion put upon St. John that night before the 
crucifixion — the affection of the Son of God. Oh, 
gift of gifts ! He never forgot that paschal feast. 
It was the stimulation of his three score years of 
labor for Christ. It moved him to a most tender 
compassion for all. 

It is related that when a young man of Ephesus, 
who had made profession of the Christian faith, 
had fallen under temptation, mingled in the revels 
about the midnight fires and finally attached himself 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



2 3 



to a notorious band of robbers, the old Apostle went 
everywhere in search of him. He exposed himself 
on a dangerous road among the ravines and rejoiced 
when a horde of wild looking men fell upon him 
with threatening cries and pinioned him. " Lead me 
to your captain," he said. The young man would 
have fled at his approach, but John held out his arms 
affectionately, saying, " My son, if any man sin there 
is an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ 
the righteous." He bent over the youth with all the 
tender affection of the shepherd seeking the lost 
bheep and saw him brought back to his first love. 

It is related, also, that when the pastor of the 
Ephesian Church was so old and feeble that he must 
needs be borne in a litter through the streets to meet 
his congregation, he would lift his hands and say, 
"Little children, love one another." 

Love is indeed the greatest thing in the world. 
The gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy, all other 
gifts shall cease, but love abideth ever. Luther calls 
it " the shortest and longest divinity ; shortest in 
words, but longest in use and practice." Love never 
faileth. Love is the fulfilling of the law. 

II. We know this Apostle also as A Son of Thunder; 
so the Master called him, nor is there any incongruity 
here. Only strong natures are capable of earnest 
love. Love prompts to energy and noble deeds. An 
apostle of love is ever a son of thunder. When the 
people of a certain village refused to entertain Jesus 
the indignation of his beloved friend would have, on 
the instant, called down fire from heaven upon them. 
As minister of the Ephesian Church he was required 
to confront the Gnostics and Nicolaitans, and they 
found in him a foeman worthy of their steel. He 



2 4 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



was ready to face a drawn sword. A roaring lion had 
no terrors for him, because the love of Christ constrain- 
ed him. He declared the glorious gospel with a voice 
accustomed to command amid the storms of Gen- 
nesaret. In his preaching there was no mumbling of 
words, no mincing of phrases. He characterized the 
man who is false to his profession as a liar, the man 
who hated his fellows as a murderer, the man who 
denied the great verities as anti-Christ. To the 
Elect Lady he wrote, " If there come any unto you 
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your 
house, neither bid him God-speed : for he that bid- 
deth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds." 

III. But this Apostle was known by still another 
name, Theologos — a lover and teacher of spiritual 
things. If times and places are of God's ordinance, 
it was assuredly not chance that selected Patmos for 
his home. It was encompassed by the deep waters 
of the Mediterranean, " now purple as wine, now green 
as an emerald, flushing and flashing in the light like 
the plumage of a dove," stretching away into the 
calm distance, or leaping and roaring in storms. 
What a closet for a man to dream in ! What peace 
the waves murmured ! What battle clarions they 
sounded ! It was not long ere the bereaved churches 
heard from their venerable pastor in the most thrilling 
letter that ever was penned by mortal man. He be- 
ing in the Spirit on the Lord's Day saw a glorious 
panorama of visions that passed before him in quick 
succession : a golden candlestick and one walking 
in the midst of it like unto the Son of Man. A 
sea of glass mingled with fire ; and an innumerable 
company of harpers playing on golden harps and 
singing, " Holy ! Holy ! Lord God Almighty ! " A 



THE SONS OF THUNDER. 



25 



company assembled to witness the opening of a book 
with seven seals ; and, as the seals are broken with 
successive trumpet blasts, the annals of all future 
history are unrolled. The marshalling of the hosts 
of Heaven and hell to the great battle of Armageddon ; 
the white company, led on by Shiloh with garments 
dipped in blood, meets the legions of darkness in 
mortal fray; the sound of clashing arms; then rattling 
chains; and Satan is cast into the bottomless pit and 
the smoke of torment ascendeth. The marriage 
supper of the Lamb ; the bridegroom brings home 
his exiled bride without spot or blemish and leads her 
to his throne amid the acclamations of the heavenly 
multitude. The New Jerusalem, with gates of pearl 
and golden streets descending from God out of 
heaven. A last glorious sun-burst! a voice, " Behold, 
I come quickly! " And the old dreamer answers, 
"Amen! Even so come, Lord Jesus!" The flame- 
pointed pen lies idle on the parchment, the busy 
hands are still, and from the silent shores of Patmos 
the soul of that disciple, whom Jesus loved, has 
gone up to lean again upon his bosom at the feast. 
"The spirit of this gracious man," says Tertullian, 
"still wanders among us." Doubtless it does ; a 
calming and sanctifying influence. Good men, being 
dead, yet live and labor. " The body of John," says 
the Apocrypha, " lies buried in peace but his influence 
lives forever. All people will tell of his wisdom, and 
the congregation of saints will declare his praise." 

An ancient collect prescribes this prayer: " Good 
Lord, do thou enlighten us with the doctrine and fill 
us with the mind of thy blessed evangelist, that we 
may at last enter into thy beatific presence and enjoy 
the rewards of everlasting life." 



YOM KIPPUR. 



"And this shall be a statute forever unto you : that in the seventh month, on 
the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work 
at all, whether it be one of your own country, or of a stranger that so- 
journeth among you : for on that day shall the priest make an atonement 
for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before 
the Lord." — Lev. xvi. 29, 30. 

The Jews are a most interesting people. In re- 
spect to wealth, intellectual power, and historic in- 
fluence, they hold a prominent place, and, yet, they 
are ostracized the world over. The Jew is a man 
without a country ; a cosmopolite whose only patriot- 
ism is in the memory of a glorious past. The govern- 
ment of ancient Israel was a theocracy and as such 
had its centre on Mount Zion. The overthrow of 
the temple marked the destruction of the Jewish 
ritual ; yet, the rites and ceremonies of that olden 
time are preserved and celebrated in miniature, 
even to this day. The public press has made mention 
of the recent celebration of Yom Kippur, or the Day 
of Atonement.* It is the custom on this occasion for 
each member of a Jewish household to sacrifice a 
fowl as a sin-offering. The victim is waved thrice 
and then consecrated to death in the significant 
words, " May this be my substitute. It shall go unto 
death that I may enter the life of the blessed forever." 
This is, substantially, all that remains of the ancient 



* Preached, October 14, 1894. 

(26) 



YOM KIPPUR. 



2 7 



ceremonial. It is sadly significant that the scattered 
Israelites should so tenaciously cling to it. 

The tenth day of the seventh month was set apart 
in the Levitical Law as the Day of Atonement. It 
was the Great Day. All the other anniversaries 
in the Jewish calendar were of slight importance 
as compared with it. This towered above them 
like Hermon among the hills. In the wilderness 
journey it was looked forward to with solemn antici- 
pation. No food was to be partaken of ; no work 
was to be done ; there must be no sound of hammer 
or of axe ; if the people spoke it was in muffled tones. 
At sound of the trumpet they gathered in the door- 
way of their tents and turned their faces toward the 
tabernacle in the midst of the encampment. The in- 
terest was centred on three important events : First, 
The usual morning sacrifice. The high priest in his 
golden robes — so called because they were embroid- 
ered with threads of gold — offered a lamb with a 
deal of flour and a small measure of beaten oil. 
This was followed by the benediction : " The Lord 
bless thee and keep thee ; the Lord make his face 
to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee ; 
the Lord lift up upon thee the light of his coun- 
tenance and give thee peace." Second, An offering 
by the high priest for himself, and his brethren in 
the holy office. He retired, divested himself of 
his golden garments, bathed himself and put on 
white. These robes without a thread of color were 
called " The Garments of Holiness." He then came 
forth and proceeded to the brazen altar ; he slew a 
bullock, caught its blood in a basin and bearing that 
in one hand, with a golden censer in the other full of 
live coals from the altar on which he had thrown a 



28 



YOM KIPPUR. 



double handful of incense, he entered the Holy Place, 
waved the censer before the golden altar and sprinkled 
the blood before the Holiest of All. Third, The 
atonement for the people. This was the great business 
of the day. The high priest came forth into the open 
court where two goats were awaiting him. Lots 
were cast by which one of the goats was devoted to 
Jehovah and the other to Azazel. He then slew the 
goat which had been devoted to Jehovah and, bearing 
again a basin of blood, entered the tabernacle. The 
supreme moment had come. The people saw him 
lift the curtain and pass in. They could only 
imagine what occurred within the sacred enclosure. 
He passed between the golden candlestick and the 
table of shew-bread to the fine-twined curtain which 
hung before the Holiest of All ; he lifted it, entered 
and stood before the Ark of the Covenant ; he 
sprinkled the blood seven times before it and then on 
the mercy-seat ; bowing down he made supplication 
for the people ; then he retraced his steps. In the 
outer court the goat for Azazel awaited him. In the 
sight of the people he laid both hands upon its head 
and pressed hard to signify the transfer of their sins. 
Then the goat was led away by the hand of a fit 
person to the unknown land. 

What did this mean ? Surely so elaborate a 
ceremony could not have been. without significance. 
There must have been something behind it. 

I. To begin with, it set forth the tremendous fact 
of sin. It was this that prompted the gathering of 
the great multitude who viewed the solemnities with 
the most profound interest. There are some con- 
siderations which make sin an inexpressibly terrible 
thing. First, it is universal. What a relief it would 



YOM KIPPUR. 



2 9 



be to hear that somewhere on earth a tribe had been 
discovered in whose character and consciousness 
there was no trace of the unclean thing. But alas \ 
there is no such people. The great stone book of 
nature records the history of all events in the physical 
world. You may see in the old red sand-stone the 
traces of rain drops that fell thousands of years ago. 
By inspecting them you may tell from what quarter 
the wind was blowing when the rain fell. So in 
human nature we note an impartial record of all that 
has transpired in the moral province. It remains to 
be seen that there has ever been a time or anywhere 
a people that did not bear the mark of the serpent's 
trail. Second^ it is distributive. We are told by physi- 
cians that there is probably no person who can be said 
to be perfectly well. The beating of the pulse, the 
complexion, the twitching of the eye-lids will show 
the presence of disease in some form. All have not 
the same malady, but all are sick with a sickness 
which will ultimately be unto death. The moral 
malady, however, is the same with all men. The 
Lord looked down from heaven to see if there was 
any that wrought righteousness and behold there is 
none that doeth good, no, not one. Third, it is all- 
pervasive. Its effect is like the venom of the cobra, 
which sends a fever through nerve and sinew, through 
vein and artery, insinuating itself throughout the 
body to its very finger tips. Sin defiles the heart, 
distorts the reason, perverts the conscience and par- 
alyzes the will ; " The whole head is sick, the whole 
heart is faint ; from the crown of the head to the 
sole of the foot there is no soundness, but all is 
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." Fourth, 
it is a mortal malady. There is no resisting the force of 



3° 



YOM KIPPUR. 



retribution. The law is, " The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die." Its operation is slow, but sure, like the 
onward movement of a glacier. Would a Swiss 
peasant think to oppose it by bracing his form 
against it? or, by building a barricade against it ? So 
irresistible is the automatic operation of the law of 
consequences. Death is the corollary of sin. 

II. The other fact which was impressively pre- 
sented on Yom Kippur was atonement j and it is note- 
worthy that the thought of blood-atonement is as 
universal as the conviction of sin. Sacrifice is a 
world-wide institution. The altars are reared and 
fires are kindled everywhere. Not only lambs and 
bullocks are offered, but children go through the fires 
to Moloch and human hecatombs are laid upon the 
altars. Yet, obviously, blood has no virtue in itself. 
It is incredible that any one should believe that the 
killing of a dumb creature should be an equivalent 
for the sentence which has been passed upon a human 
soul. What said Isaiah ? " God is not pleased with 
thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil." 
What said St. Paul ? " It is impossible that the blood 
of bulls and of goats should take away sin." What 
said Isaac Watts ? 

" Not all the blood of beasts 
On Jewish altars slain, 
Can give the guilty conscience peace, 
Or wash away the stain." 

There must De something under the surface here. If 
we are indeed the children of the living God, is it 
natural to suppose that he would leave us in our 
lost estate without some intimation of his love and 
his desire to save us ? We have this intimation in 
the universal institution of sacrifice. It speaks 61 



YOM KIPPUR. 



31 



the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the 
world. 

In the ceremonial of the great Day of Atonement 
there was nothing which did not point forward to the 
gospel. It was a great prophetic Ober-ammergau 
with Jesus at its centre dying for the world's sin. 
We note here three objects of peculiar interest. First, 
the high priest in his " Garments of Holiness" He who 
makes atonement for sin must be himself free from 
the unclean thing. Where shall we look for such an 
One among the children of men ? There is only one 
in all history who, by common consent, stands clothed 
in spotless white. Of Jesus it is written, " There 
was no guile in his heart ; there was no guile on his 
lips." Second, the blood of the sacrifice. Death for 
death ! Life for life ! Life for the guilty by the 
death of the innocent ! And the substitute must be 
of such a character as that the sacrifice of his life 
shall be the equivalent of the indebtedness of all sin- 
ners to the offended law. The high priest sprinkled 
the blood seven times before the mercy-seat. Seven 
times in token of completeness. But where shall we 
find one who as the antitype of this sacrifice shall be 
able to make a complete expiation of the world's 
sin ? He must be infinite. The lamb for this sacri- 
fice must be the Lamb of God. One pang in the 
heart of Jesus was of more value than all the pains 
of the convicted here and all the anguish of the lost 
for ever. His blood is of infinite value in this atone- 
ment, for he was very God of very God. Third, the 
scapegoat. The high priest having laid the sins of the 
people upon the head of the scapegoat, it was led 
forth by the hands of a fit person to Azazel, — the land 
of separation. Yonder it goes along the mountain 



3 2 



YOM KIPPUR. 



path, up the heights further and further — the people 
in their doorways stand shading their eyes and gaz- 
ing after it, further and further until in the dimness 
it passes from view — and with the scapegoat has gone 
their sin into the unknown land. So Jesus bearing 
the burden of our sin, was led by the Spirit out 
into the wilderness and along the dreary path of 
homelessness and friendlessness, of want and weari- 
ness ; led onward still to the judgment hall, to Geth- 
semane, and up the heights alone, forsaken, under the 
dark shadow of the cross, into the deep night that en- 
folded it. The cry, " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ?" 
marked his coming into the land of separation. The 
cry, "It is finished!" was uttered when he, bear- 
ing upon his breaking heart the burden of the world's 
guilt, passed from our sight. He bore that guilt 
away to Azazel, to the land of oblivion, where God 
has put it behind his back, to remember it no more 
against us. 

III. But where is the personal factor in all this ? 
The people who stood round about on Yom Kippur 
were all with one consent represented in the service 
of the high priest. The heathen who looked on 
possibly from the surrounding hillsides had no part 
nor lot in it. When the high priest laid his hands up- 
on the scapecoat and pressed hard, every soul in the 
encampment might say, " He is laying my sins upon 
it." Christ died for all, but the great sacrifice is 
effective for only such as have a personal concern in 
it. The benefits of the atonement are conditioned 
upon the exercise of faith. Only believe ! Faith is 
the hand that appropriates it. A few years ago a 
party of Americans ascending Mt. Blanc were over- 
taken by a storm and lost their way. Their bodies 



YOM KIPPUR. 



33 



were afterward found within twelve feet of a place of 
shelter. Five steps would have saved them. The 
salvation of the cross is nearer than that. One 
step will save us, the step that brings us face to 
face with Jesus, to put our hand into his and commit 
our destiny to him. Here is the one thing needful. 
The supreme moment in the history of every sinner 
is when, knowing his sin and hearing the call of the 
Saviour, he answers " I will." It may be that some 
of us are at this moment standing under the cross 
and looking upon the great sacrifice. All that, 
remains is for us to say, " I consent to it." 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



" The Lord looseth the prisoners : the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind : the 
Lord raiseth them that are bowed down." — Psalm cxlvi. 7, 8. 

We speak of the philosophy of history, and the 
phrase is well chosen ; for history is not a series of 
accidents, but a chain of logical sequences. Event 
grows out of event, to-day out of yesterday, and all 
are linked together by a common providence. The 
Lord reigneth ; men and nations, generations and 
aeons, are subject unto Him. 

One summer day in 1572 the Duke of Alva and 
Catharine de Medici met on the border of Spain. It 
was a famous meeting. These two were come to- 
gether as the agents of the Holy Catholic Church 
to apportion the world between them. To the Duke 
of Alva fell the task of subjugating the Netherlands 
with their Protestant dependencies. How well he 
fulfilled his appointed task, let the story of the 
Spanish Fury, the heroism of the Beggars of Hol- 
land and the glory of the Dutch Republic attest. 
Catharine de Medici took it upon herself, in par- 
ticular, to exterminate the Protestantism of France. 
Her persistent appeals to Charles IX. were in vain, 
however ; until, at last, worn out by her impor- 
tunity, he exclaimed, " The order of extermination 

(34) 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



35 



shall be signed on one condition, to wit : that no 
Huguenot shall survive to shake an accusing finger 
at me ! " The awful sequel is matter of common 
fame. At midnight of August 4th, 1572, the bell of 
St. Germain rang out the tocsin and the city was 
given over to slaughter. The king himself, now quite 
forgetful of the claims of mercy, stood at one of the 
windows of the Louvre, arquebuse in hand, firing 
down upon the inoffensive Protestants fleeing for 
their lives. The Duke of Guise ran madly through 
the streets, leading on the royal forces and crying, 
" Kill ! kill ! " A hundred thousand of the flower of 
France were slain. In commemoration of that night 
a medal was struck bearing on one side the effigy of 
an angel uplifting in one hand the cross, in the other 
a dripping sword with the inscription " Strages 
Ugenottorum" " Slaughter of the Huguenots " ; on 
the obverse the image and superscription of Pope 
Gregory XIII. A bloody reckoning was made that 
day ; the years must atone for it. 

"The mills of God grind slowly, 

Yet they grind exceeding small ; 
Though with patience He stands waiting, 
With exactness grinds He all." 

But despite all precautions taken to prevent the 
escape of a single Huguenot, there were many who 
remained in France. Then followed a hundred years 
of more or less vigorous efforts to remove them. 
They were persecuted, exiled, put under the ban, 
and still they lived and, in out-of-the-way places, 
with simple rites, worshipped their God. One by one 
their liberties were taken away until, October 22d, 1685, 
occurred the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. By 
this summary act the last remnant of the charter of 



36 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



Huguenot freedom passed away. The Protestants of 
France had no longer the right to live. Toll the bell! 
The work of extermination is surely accomplished. 
Yet, not so ; man proposes but God disposes. The 
Huguenots still lived and the black clouds of retribu- 
tion were gathering fast. The last chapter was not 
written yet. 

We now come to another of the momentous 
dates in French history, July 14th, 1789. But before 
noting the important event which occurred on that 
day, it will be well to observe that the French people, 
not merely Protestants but the people generally, 
had reached the extreme point of misery. For a 
long time there had been ominous mutterings. 
"Blood!" "To Arms!" "Liberty, Equality, Fra- 
ternity," were written on the dead walls of Paris by 
unknown hands. Right or wrong, the people were 
accustomed to associate their misfortunes with the 
Bastille, the royal prison in which many of the truest 
patriots were doomed to a living death. It towered 
aloft frowning like an evil spirit in their midst. 
Not a few of the devoted friends of the people, 
arrested under the authority of Lettres de Cachet had 
disappeared under that portal whereon might well 
have been written the legend which Dante placed 
above the gates of the Inferno, " All hope abandon, 
ye who enter here ! " The authorities, apprehensive 
lest the fury of the people should be directed toward 
the Bastille, had recently re-enforced its garrison and 
furnished its magazine with one hundred and thirty- 
five barrels of gunpowder. On the preceding night 
the people had assembled in multitudes on the quays, 
on the bridges and along the boulevards. There 
were old men, women wearing red caps, many driven 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



37 



desperate by hunger and want and unspeakable hard- 
ships. At daybreak the cry was raised, " A la Bastille! " 
U A la Bastille /" But they had no arms, nor ammuni- 
tion. The walls of the great prison were forty feet 
thick and it was garrisoned by veterans. The mob 
surged through the streets to the Hotel-de-Ville, 
where the doors were battered down and twenty- 
eight thousand muskets secured. Then on to the 
Bastille. Meanwhile De Launey, the warden, had not 
been inactive. He had loaded his cannon with grape- 
shot and dragged six cart-loads of paving-stones to 
the summit of the walls. He stood listening now to the 
distant murmur in the town ; he saw the black mass 
approaching in the distance ; heard the cry, "A la 
Bastille/" and as the multitude closed in about the 
stronghold, he confidently hurled his defiance at 
them. For hours the multitude raged vainly under 
the towering walls. It was now noon. A blacksmith 
named Louis Tourney ran toward the drawbridge 
with hatchet in hand, climbed the roof of a guard- 
house, and reached the great chain that held the 
bridge ; the bullets from above rained thick and fast 
about him ; he began to hammer at the chain ; pres- 
ently the drawbridge fell and the mob crossed over. 
They were in the open court. The firing from above 
was met by firing from below. De Launey being 
summoned to surrender to the Citizens' Guard, 
answered with renewed defiance. Straw was brought 
in cart-loads and heaped against the gates. A bat- 
tering ram was improvised. At half past five o'clock 
there was a great shout. The gates fell in. The 
Bastille was taken. A thousand men crowded 
through the great gateway, ten thousand more push- 
ing from behind. De Launey had seized a torch and 



3§ 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



would have fired the magazine. The mob required 
him to pass with his torch along the dark passages of 
the great prison. One by one its gloomy cells were 
opened. An old man, bewildered, tried to defend him- 
self against his rescuers. Another invited them to his 
hospitality, proclaiming himself as " Master of Im- 
mensity." Still another, whose beard had grown to 
his waist, inquired after the health of Louis XV.; 
reason had fled. The sight of these wretched 
prisoners still further inflamed the passions of the 
mob. Women with knives in their hands fell upon 
De Launey ; a moment later his head was raised 
upon a pike. Out from the portals of the Bastille 
came the mob bearing seven prisoners on their 
shoulders and with eight gory heads carried aloft. 
A messenger made all haste to bring the tidings to 
the king. " Is it a revolt?" he asked. "Nay, sire," 
replied the herald, "it is a revolution !" And indeed 
that was the beginning of the French Revolution. 
God is a sure paymaster. It was not long ere Paris 
was filled with carnage. Its gutters ran with blood. 

At this time Hannah More wrote to Horace 
Walpole, "Poor France! Though I am sorry that 
the lawless rabble are triumphant, I cannot help hop- 
ing that some good will arise from the destruction of 
the Bastille." We can now look backward upon this 
event from the distance of a hundred years and it is 
not difficult to see how, by the working of divine 
providence, great good has resulted from it. 

I. To begin with, it impressed on France forever 
a lesson in human rights. A wide gulf had been 
opened between the aristocracy and the people. The 
superior classes claimed everything ; the unshod 
people had no rights. The 14th of July was a great 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



39 



levelling day. The life of Sombreuil being demanded 
by the mob, his daughter cried, " Spare him ! He is 
my father." His life was spared on condition that 
this daughter would drink a cup filled with the blood 
of aristocrats. The devoted girl, shuddering, drained 
the cup. Horrors like this were the inevitable out- 
come of long centuries of sufferings on the part of the 
down-trodden people. They would have no aristoc- 
racy save that of worth and character. The echoes of 
the American Declaration of Independence — all men 
are created free and equal and with certain inalien- 
able rights — had come across the sea. Over in Scot- 
land Robert Burns was singing of the dignity of man, 

" A prince can mak a belted knight, 
A marquis, duke, and a' that ; 
But an honest man's aboon his might, — 

Guid faith, he maunna fa' that? 
For a' that, and a' that, 

Their dignities, and a' that ; 
The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, 
Are higher ranks than a' that." 

II. The outcome of this great popular upheaval 
was ultimately to be an open Bible. It was four 
hundred years previous to this event that Wyckcliffe 
had translated the Scriptures into the English tongue 
and had said to an opponent in public controversy, 
" If God spare my life, I will cause that every plough- 
boy know the Scriptures better than thou knowest it." 
Yet in France the Bible was chained to the high altar 
and the search-warrant which the Lord Himself had 
put into the hands of the people — Search the 
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life — 
was of no avail. France was yet to learn that God's 
Word is the franchise of civil and ecclesiastical free- 
dom and, by the same token, the guarantee of national 



40 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



perpetuity. The corollary of the French Revolution 
is the French Republic, in which the right of every 
man to search the Scriptures for himself is fully 
recognized. The glory of this concession is yet to 
come in the flooding of the nation with heavenly light. 

III. The fall of the Bastille was an effective blow 
for the enfranchisement of the individual conscience. 
Michelet calls the Bastille "The prison of thought." 
The Church itself, as France knew the Church in those 
days, was largely responsible for the condition of 
things. It was the logical reaction from ecclesiastical 
tyranny when a courtesan was enthroned in Notre 
Dame as the Goddess of Reason. No God, no 
Church, no Religion ! Such was the Revolution from 
a long-continued system of clerical repression. All 
must be coerced into the " Church's " way of thinking. 
Oh ! what an array of martyrs would pass before us 
if all those could be marshalled who have suffered 
from that holy sophism. Quakers, Anabaptists, 
Covenanters, Huguenots and Romanists too. Aye, 
for there have been Catholic as well as Protestant 
martyrs. The legend of the French Revolution was 
" Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ! " But there is 
another legend for our banners, to wit : Toleration ! 
And toleration means not that men shall surrender 
their individual convictions, but that being firm in 
their way of thinking, they shall be willing that all 
others shall be equally firm in thinking another way. 
There are bigots in every denomination of believers, 
as Thomas Moore says, 

" For mad as Christians used to be, 
About the thirteenth century ; 
There's lots of Christians to be had 
In this the nineteenth, just as mad." 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 



41 



The spirit of Christ will never prevail on earth until 
we recognize the fact that loyalty to truth does not 
mean the repression of error by physical force. 
Would that all might believe as we do ; but they 
have the right, so far as we are concerned, to believe 
as they please. 

IV. As we look backward over the long series of 
bloody events in French history, we cannot but per- 
ceive that truth is indestructible; for notwithstand- 
ing the tremendous efforts made century after 
century to destroy the Huguenots, they still live. 
To-day the descendants of those who were slain 
in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, scattered 
among the towns and villages of rural France, are 
stretching out their hands and pleading that God's 
people shall come over and help them. They are 
indeed a feeble folk like the conies. In many cases 
they worship within the ruined walls of old 
Huguenot sanctuaries. There are not many mighty, 
not many noble among them. They are without 
wealth or influence. But the passion for truth is 
strong within them and they long for the privileges 
of worship and are an hungered for the Word of God 

The sad story of the Huguenots should inspire 
within us a profounder love for the Gospel with its 
glorious franchise of truth and freedom. Let us be- 
lieve in the ultimate triumph of justice. Let us be 
true to our own convictions ; steadfast, and yet 
generous ; eager to propagate the Gospel, yet kind 
and tolerant toward those who blindly reject it ; and 
above all things, now and ever, let us have faith in 
God. 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



" The secret things belong unto the Lord our God : but those things which 
are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may- 
do all the works of this law."— Deut. xxix. 29. 

The pulpit is no place for dreams and speculations. 
It deals with the great verities on which rests the as- 
surance of the endless life. Ours is a utilitarian age. 
It has been said truly, " The age of apologetics has 
gone by ; the day of dynamics has come." No truth 
is worthy of serious consideration which cannot be 
brought to bear upon the duties and responsibilities 
of common life. It seems incredible that such 
questions as " How many of the spirits of the just 
can stand on the point of a cambric needle ? " 
were ever seriously discussed. Yet that very ques- 
tion engaged the minds of the scholastics in pro- 
tracted controversy. We have no time nor disposi- 
tion for such problems now. Life is too serious. 
Time flies too fast. 

The doctrine of election has been the theme of 
much unprofitable discussion. The fallen angels in 
Paradise Lost are represented as bewildered in the 
mazes of 

" Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute." 
But this doctrine in common with all others has sub- 
stantial value by reason of its bearing on the duties 

(42) 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



43 



and responsibilities of daily life. It is in this light 
that we desire to consider it. Let us, therefore, pro- 
ceed to indicate certain points, with reference to this 
doctrine, which may be regarded as reasonably certi- 
fied and of practical importance. 

I. Election is a fact. It follows as a logical se- 
quence from the belief in a personal God : for a God 
without the attributes of omniscience and omnipo- 
tence is unthinkable. To say, however, that all 
things were eternally in the divine mind and under 
the divine control is to formulate the very doctrine 
now before us. Moreover it is buttressed by the con- 
tinuous testimony of Holy Writ. As where it is said, 
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you " — 
" chosen you from the foundation of the world " — " elect 
according to the foreknowledge of God." " And we 
know that all things work together for good to them 
who are the called according to his purpose. For 
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to 
be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover 
whom he did predestinate, them he also called : and 
whom he called, them he also justified : and whom 
he justified, them ne also glorified." Still further, 
this doctrine is sustained by the universal evangelical 
consensus You will find it in the Canons of 
Dort, the Westminster Confession, the Thirty-nine 
Articles, and indeed in the symbols of the universal 
Church. We are accustomed to draw a line between 
Calvinism and Arminianism, as if the former ac- 
cepted while the latter rejected this doctrine. In 
fact, however, both alike accept the doctrine, but 
view it from different standpoints. Arminians say, 
God foreknew and then predestinated ; while Cal- 
vinists say, God predestinated and then foreknew. 



44 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



But practically here is a distinction without a dif- 
ference, for to the divine mind there can be no chro- 
nological sequence. There is neither " before " nor 
"after" with Him whose lifetime is an eternal now. 
Foreknowledge involves the absolute certainty of the 
thing foreknown, equally with predestination. 

II. Election is a mystery. God would not be God 
if we could understand him. It is his glory to con- 
ceal a matter. All nature is full of mysteries. A 
grain of sand, a drop of water, a grass blade, present 
problems beyond the reach of the profoundest science 
or philosophy. We do not reject a fact in nature be- 
cause we cannot understand it. Why, then, under 
like conditions, should we reject a fact in the province 
of spiritual things ? Nay, rather should it not be 
supposed that in the realm of the unseen and eternal 
mystery would be more abundant than within the 
narrow circle which we can reach with our finger tips ? 
If a man were to betake himself to the East River to 
fish for whales with a pinhook, we should know him 
instantly to be a daft Jamie. But what of the man 
who undertakes, with the resources at the command 
of a finite mind, to fathom the unsearchable depths 
of the mind of God ? 

III. The doctrine of election rests upon the divine sover- 
eignty. Only God is great. Who art thou that re- 
pliest against him ? Shall the thing formed say to 
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ? 
The prophet Jeremiah, bewildered in these same 
premises, went down to the potter's house and saw 
him working a vessel upon the wheels, and the work 
that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the 
potter ; so he made it again as it seemed good unto 
him. Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



45 



saying, " O house of Israel, can I not do with thee 
even as this potter ? Behold as the clay is in the 
potter's hands so are ye in mine." We may resent 
this statement of the truth, but we cannot disbelieve 
it. God is an absolute sovereign. Our breath is in 
our nostrils and our wisdom is, in comparison with 
his, as the glow of a fire-fly to the resplendence of 
the noonday sun. It is for him to say whether he 
will make an accounting of himself to us. In the 
last reduction we know him by his name, " I am 
that I am ! " 

IV. This doctrine is not incompatible with the sover- 
eignty of the human will. If God is sovereign there is 
also a real sense in which man may be said to be 
sovereign too. He was made in the divine likeness 
and the similitude rests largely in the independence 
of his will. All other creatures are in bondage under 
law. The ox grazes where God bids it. The sun 
goes forth out of his chamber to run his race without 
deviation along the orbit which God has marked for 
it. The sea obeys his voice, " Thus far and no 
farther." Man alone can listen to the divine command 
and say, " I will not ! " By virtue of the divineness 
within him he can resist God and disobey his holy 
will. It pleased God in making man after his own 
likeness to put it beyond his power to compel him. 
Wherefore he says, " Come now, let us reason to- 
gether." And the Son of God laments, " O Jerusalem, 
how often would I have gathered you as a hen doth 
gather her brood under her wings and ye would not." 
Our freedom is a simple matter of personal conscious- 
ness. I propose to lift my hand or drop it. But be- 
fore doing so let me reflect a moment : no doubt it is 
settled in the divine mind already, and indeed has been 



4 6 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



from all eternity, just what I am about to do with this 
hand ; yet I am absolutely positive that I can do pre- 
cisely what I please with it. Shakespeare says, " Our 
bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are 
gardeners ; so that if we will plant nettles or sow 
lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it 
with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, 
either to have it sterile with idleness or manured with 
industry — why, the power and incorrigible authority 
of this lies in our wills." 

V. As to the nexus or mode of reconciliation betwee?i 
the divine sovereignty and free will. Where is it? We 
plead ignorance. The truth is paradoxical, yet both 
ends of the paradox are true. There is no contra- 
diction between them ; I know that God is sovereign, 
I know that man is free. My inability to dovetail 
these complementary facts need not prevent my 
believing them. A railway train is speeding from 
the west towards the sea- board at the rate of 
sixty miles an hour. Not knowing how the loco- 
motive is joined to the loaded cars, I call to the en- 
gineer to stop and let me see. If he were to answer, 
it would be in some such way as this, " I cannot ; 
business is too pressing. We are moving the wheat 
crop of the Dakotas eastward to feed the hunger of 
the world. There's a coupler here, but I cannot stop 
the train to show it." God is saving the world. He 
is using two factors in doing it, — his own sovereignty 
and man's consent. I cannot see the coupler. I only 
know that omnipotence goes on before and free will 
follows after, and that they work together toward a 
glorious consummation. So history is being made 
and the world is being restored to God. 

VI. The eternal decrees are founded in absolute justice. 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



47 



Election does not mean arbitrary choice. God is no 
respecter of persons. Shall not the Lord of all the 
earth do right ? There is a reason in the discrimina- 
tion made between the elect and the non-elect ; and 
that reason does not rest in any moral difference in 
the souls affected by it. More than that we cannot 
say, because God is silent. It needs scarcely be said 
that the infinite God has a right to be silent. At 
this moment we are criticising one of our local mag- 
istrates for what appears to be a maladministration of 
justice. The case stands thus : two culprits were 
brought before him charged with homicide ; one of 
these culprits is now breaking stones in Sing Sing, 
the other has gone scot free ; at the trial the evidence 
seemed to be equally weighty against them. The 
magistrate says only for himself that he had good 
grounds for discriminating between them and he 
promises in due time to let the public know. Mean- 
while we wisely suspend judgment. In like manner 
the Lord has declined thus far to disclose the reason 
for his seeming partiality in choosing some to eternal 
life and passing others by. We may not like his 
silence in this matter, but we shall probably agree, 
that we are entitled to nothing more than a definite 
assurance, which he has given us, of absolute justice 
in the matter. It may be that sometime we shall 
know the rationale of the decrees. He may or he 
may never reveal it. 

VII. The divine decree has filled heaven with saints 
redeemed. There are ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand and thousands of thousands in yonder world of 
light not one of whom went thither on account of 
personal merit, but all through sovereign grace. The 
glory is all ascribed to God. 



4§ 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



" While all their hearts and all their songs 

Join to admire the feast, 
Each of them cries, with thankful tongue, 

Lord, why was I a guest ? 
Why was I made to hear thy voice, 

And enter while there's room, 
While thousands make a wretched choice 

And rather starve than come ? " 

All of these were born not of the will of flesh nor of 
the will of man, but of God. Even so, Father, for so 
it seemeth good in thy sight. 

" 'Twas the same love that spread the feast, 
That sweetly drew us in ; 
Else we had still refused to taste, 
And perished in our sin." 

VIII. While this decree has filled heaven with redeemed, 
it has kept none out. In all the realms of outer dark- 
ness there is not a single sou) which can ascribe its 
sorrow to aught but self-will. There was a time when 
a portion of God's people held to what is known as 
the "Decree of Reprobation," i.e., that God predesti- 
nated certain ones to be damned. This is a libel 
pure and simple. God foreordained sin — and nothing 
else — to hell. He foreordained unrighteousness to 
the fire that can never be quenched ; but if the sinner 
goes out into eternal shame and remorse it is his own 
doing. The sincere lament of the Holy One is, " Thou 
hast destroyed thyself ! " 

IX. We find, therefore, in this doctrine no excuse for 
inaction. Let us be as rational in spiritual matters as 
we are in the common things of life. The farmer 
who goes forth to sow his fields knows that in the 
divine mind it has been predetermined whether there 
shall be a harvest or not. Yet he knows that 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



49 



he is free to sow the seed and he proceeds to sow 
it. Suppose that an invalid, presuming upon the 
fact that his life or death is a matter of certainty 
to the divine mind, were to refuse the medicines 
prescribed for his cure — we should pronounce him 
a fool and prepare the crape for his door. But 
in common affairs men do not act in that way. We 
are perfectly well aware that while all events as well 
as our eternal destiny have been divinely foreknown 
and predetermined, yet our wills are quite free and 
everything in the final outcome depends upon us. 
We know moreover that in the spiritual province one 
thing is settled, for God has distinctly announced it, 
to wit: If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
shall be saved ; and if not, we shall never enter into 
life. The part of a wise man is to act accordingly. 
" Strive to enter in ! " 

X. There is great encouragement in this doctrine to such 
as are inclined to seek their own eternal weal. We are 
not left to our own weakness. " Work out your own 
salvation " is the exhortation, <l for it is God that 
worketh in you both to will and to do of his own 
good pleasure." Is it not inspiring to realize that in 
every good impulse and resolution we are reinforced 
by omnipotence ? " If God be for us, who shall be 
against us ? " 

We, therefore, ministering in his name, declare to 
you again a free gospel. " Ho, every one ! " This 
gospel is buttressed by an oath and an invitation. 
" As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked ; but that all should turn and 
live." "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. 
And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him 
that is athrist, come. And whosoever will, let him 



50 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 

take of the water of life freely." I exhort you, there- 
fore, to " make your calling and election sure." This 
is to be done by a frank acceptance of Jesus Christ 
and life-long faithfulness in following him. Are we 
questioning whether or no our names are written 
in the book of life ? It is the Lamb's Book. If we 
have a personal interest in the atoning work of 
Christ as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation 
of the world, our names are there. If not, not. And 
over the gateway of the New Jerusalem is written 
this legend, " There shall in no wise enter here any- 
thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie : but they which are 
written in the Lamb's book of life." 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF 
GOD. 

" I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."— 
Psalm cxxii. i. 

This Psalm is entitled : " David professeth his 
love for the Church." And how he did love it ! A 
wanderer among the mountains, he mourned for his 
privileges: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the liv- 
ing God : when shall I come and appear before God ? 
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul 
in me : for I had gone with the multitude, I went 
with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy 
and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday." All 
Israel loved the sanctuary in their exile, they hanged 
their harps upon the willows and wept, remembering 
Zion : " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, 
let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth : If I 
prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." We are 
much afraid of excessive devotion to the Church in 
these days, as if, somehow, our Lord were disparaged 
thereby ; but indeed there is no danger. The bride- 
groom is not jealous of his bride. We please Him 
when we sing 

" I love thy Church, O God ; 

Her walls before Thee stand, 
Dear as the apple of Thine eye, 
And graven on Thy hand." 
(51) 



52 WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

I. We have reason to love the Church because it is 
the peculiar abode of the Lord." This will appear in 
many of its titles, as, The Church of God, the Abode 
of Christ, the City of the Living God, the Holy Hill,- 
God's Building, God's Husbandry, the Household of 
God, the Mountain of the Lord of Hosts, a City not 
Forsaken, the Lord's Portion, the Spiritual House, 
Place of God's Throne, the Temple of the Living God. 
It is true that the Infinite One dwelleth not in temples 
made with hands ; that is to say, His presence is not 
exclusively there, and yet He has promised to manifest 
Himself there in a peculiar manner. Indeed, the 
supreme importance and significance of the Church 
is due to this fact ; it is Beth-el, the house of God. 
Its history could be written in a series of Theophanies 
or divine appearings. 

First Chapter : "And Abel brought of the first- 
lings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord 
had respect unto his offering " (Gen. iii. 4). "And Abel 
obtained witness that he was righteous : God testify- 
ing of his gifts" (Heb. xi. 4). The blood streaming 
over the altar testifies to the coming of Christ, and 
the voice from heaven assures the worshipper of the 
divine presence and approval ; God is there and that 
to bless him. 

Second Chapter : " The Lord said unto Abram, 
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy father's 
house, unto a land that I will shew thee " (Gen. xii. 
1). In obedience to that voice the patriarch went 
forth with his household, journeying along the banks 
of the great river, heeding the divine guidance, and 
building altars wherever he went. How jealously 
the angels must have guarded his tent, for within its 
fluttering curtains was the seed and promise of the 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



53 



universal Church. The altars which the patriarch 
built, as he passed on, were memorials of his faith in 
the coming Christ and the voice gave constant assur- 
ance that God was with him. 

Third Chapter : " And Jacob dreamed, and behold 
a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached 
to heaven : and behold the angels of God ascending 
and descending on it. And the Lord stood above it 
and said, Behold, I am with thee. And Jacob 
awaked out of his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is 
in this place ; and I knew it not. And he called the 
name of that place Beth-el. And he reared a pillar 
and said, This stone shall be the house of God" 
(Gen. xxviii. 12, 16, 19, 22). 

Fourth Chapter: "And the Lord spake unto 
Moses saying, Let the children of Israel make me a 
sanctuary ; that I may dwell among them" (Ex. xxv. 
1, 8). This was under the shadow of the flaming 
mountain at the giving of the law, and the tabernacle 
which was then constructed was after the pattern 
which God had showed Moses in the mount. Its 
plans and specifications were all divine. Its posts 
and curtains, rings and staves, spoons and dishes, 
knops and flowers, candlesticks and snuffers, were all 
made after the divine pattern. The importance of 
this simple fabric is shown by the fact that it occu- 
pies more space in the sacred narrative than does the 
creation of the world. It was "a little spot enclosed 
by grace out of the world's great wilderness." At 
its doorway stood the brazen altar with blood stream- 
ing over it and within its Holy of Holies was the Ark 
of the Covenant, above which rose the Shekinah or 
luminous cloud which was the perpetual token of 
God's presence. 



54 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



Fifth Chapter : "And it came to pass in the four 
hundred and eightieth year after the children of 
Israel were come out of Egypt, that Solomon began 
to build the house of the Lord " (I. Kings vi. i). 
This was the house " exceeding magnifical." It was 
reared without the sound of hammer or of axe. 

"No workman's steel, no ponderous axes swung ; 
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung." 

One hundred and eighty-five thousand workmen were 
employed upon this magnificent edifice, and it was 
seven years in building. As in the tabernacle, its 
architecture, with all its buildings, were after a divine 
pattern. It was not finished, however, until the Ark 
of the Covenant was brought into it. The king sat 
in solemn state at its dedication, the great altar 
smoked with sacrifice, the Levites drew near with the 
sacred symbol of the holy Presence, chanting, " Lift 
up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye 
everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory enter 
in ! " Then the cloudy Presence, the Shekinah, filled 
the house so that the priests were not able to minister 
by reason of it. " The Lord is in his holy temple ; 
let all the earth keep silence before him." 

Chapter Six : A thousand years after the dedi- 
cation of Solomon's Temple the disciples of Christ 
were come together in an open court in Jerusalem and 
were praying there. Strange things had happened ; 
the Christ had come, had lived and labored and 
suffered and died upon the cross. At the moment of 
His death, when He cried " It is finished ! " the priest 
who was ministering in the temple on Mt. Moriah 
saw the veil that hung before the Holy of Holies rent 
from the top to the bottom as by an invisible hand. 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



55 



The old economy, with its types and shadows, now 
passed away. The time had come for the rearing of a 
new and more glorious fabric on the old foundations, 
to wit, the Church of Jesus Christ. And while the 
disciples were praying in that open court in Jerusalem, 
" Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a 
rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where 
they were sitting " (Acts ii. 2). Thus the Holy 
Ghost came upon them, and amid the wonders of that 
pentecostal occasion the Christian Church had its 
birth. In the simplicity of its ritual were gathered 
up the sum and substance of all the elaborate cere- 
monial of the old Jewish Church. All purifications 
were briefly set forth in baptism ; all sacrifices in the 
Lord's Supper, which memorializes the death of Him 
who was sacrificed once for all. 

The Seventh Chapter of ecclesiastical history is 
yet to be written, and the old dreamer on Patmos out- 
lined it in prophetic vision, when, looking through 
the open windows above, he saw the New Jerusalem — 
gates of pearl and streets of gold and sea of glass and 
multitudinous worshippers whose voice was as the 
sound of many waters. And the dreamer writes, " I 
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for 
her husband. And I heard a great voice out of 
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and 
be their God" (Rev. xxi. 2, 3). 

II. Still further we love the Church because it is 
the rendezvous of saints. Thither the tribes go up. 

At the time of the great annual festivals, Pass- 
over, Pentecost, Tabernacles, the thoroughfares in 



56 WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

every direction were thronged with the multitudes 
who journeyed to Jerusalem to worship God. They 
came from every part of the Holy Land. There was 
Asshur from the Northwest with the sheaf upon his 
banner ; there was Benjamin from beyond the 
Cedron, and Dan from the head waters of the Leb- 
anon, and Ephraim waving his standard whereon 
were the horns of a unicorn ; there was Gad from the 
fords of Jericho, and Zebulon from the lake region, 
and Napthali, the hind let loose ; all these had their 
tribal quarrels and bickerings and marched under 
their own peculiar standards, but as they neared the 
Holy City and the sacred edifice, they folded all their 
banners and bowed together in the worship of their 
God. In like manner the Christian Church is divided 
into its various denominations, but we are all one 
under the aegis of a common devotion. There is one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of 
us all. 

It was not only for worship, however, that the 
tribes were accustomed to seek the Holy Place. In 
times of great danger from the heathen round about 
or from foreign incursion, they fled thither for refuge. 
Jerusalem was almost impregnable. The mountains 
round about were natural fortifications, and the city 
itself, builded compact together, was like a mighty 
citadel. Zion is ever the defense of God's people. 
We may be weak in ourselves, but O what strength 
there is in the mutual prayers and sympathies of the 
great fellowship ! What inspiration in the thought 
that we, who are individually so weak and fallible, 
are held up in the mighty volume of universal suppli- 
cation. No right-living man, who aspires after char- 
acter, can afford to forego this privilege of co-opera- 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



57 



tive help. There are those who suppose that the 
Church is an association of persons who profess to 
be good ; but, indeed, we are in the Church not be- 
cause we are ourselves perfect, as though we lacked 
nothing, but on account of our conscious infirmity- 
We know that we cannot stand alone ; we need the 
fellowship. In Celsus's famous assault upon the 
Church in his controversy with Origen, he said: " You 
are a company of profligates, of avowed sinners, of 
publicans and harlots. Did not your Master say, I 
am come not to call the righteous but sinners ? " 
And Origen answered: " Aye, the Master did say, I 
am come not to call the righteous but sinners — to 
Repentance." That is, to the abandonment of sin, 
to a brave struggle against the world, the flesh, and 
the devil, to the building up of character, to the life 
which is hid with Christ in God. We have the assur- 
ance of our Lord that being in this goodly fellowship 
and trusting wholly to His sustaining strength in 
answer to prayer, we shall be held as in the hollow of 
His hand and no man shall pluck us out of it. Here 
is the secret of the perseverance of the saints. God 
is in the midst of Zion and her citadel is impregnable. 
The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. 

III. A still further reason for our devotion to the 
Church is because it is the seat of spiritual power. The 
arm of the Lord is made bare in Zion for the deliver- 
ance of the world from sin. 

The two great pillars of the Church, like Jachin 
and Boaz-, which upheld the porch of the temple, are 
Truth and Righteousness, (i) The Church is the de- 
pository of truth. Where else have the great doc- 
trines been formulated ? We believe in a personal 
God. We believe in immortality, and life and im- 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



mortality are brought to light in the Gospel of Christ. 
We believe in the Incarnation — the Incarnation has 
been formulated only in the symbols of the Church. 
We believe in the Atonement, which is the only 
rational plan ever devised or suggested for the 
deliverance of a soul from the shame and pen- 
alty and bondage of sin. These are sublime truths 
touching the solution of problems which reach 
out into the eternal ages ; and for the formulation of 
these truths the world is indebted to the Church of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. All of them rest upon the 
Scriptures, which are her peculiar heritage. " What 
advantage, then, has the Jew? " says the Apostle Paul. 
" Much every way ; chiefly because that unto them 
were committed the oracles of God." The world is 
to be saved by the foolishness of preaching, and the 
centre of all preaching is truth. This is the Archi- 
medean lever which is to lift the world toward 
Heaven and its fulcrum is the throne of God. (2) 
The other pillar of the Church is righteousness. 
Righteousness is obedience to law. The summary of 
the world's ethics is in the Ten Commandments and 
the Sermon on the Mount, and they are the peculiar 
possession of the Church. These furnish the basis of 
Christian character, beginning with the pardon of sin 
through the blood of Jesus. We proceed to " edifica- 
tion," literally temple-building. When the fabulous 
Amphion played upon his lyre the stones came from 
the quarries and assumed their places in the walls of 
Thebes. It is the work of God's Spirit to build char- 
acter by the laying of grace upon grace, until we 
pardoned sinners shall, under His gracious influence, 
grow unto the full stature of manhood in Christ. 
The sum total of spiritual power is comprehended 



WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



59 



in these two, truth and righteousness. If we seek 
the great energies of nature we shall find them not 
amid the roar of the tempest or the rumble of the 
earthquake, but in the silent operation of air and 
light By the forces of the atmosphere the mountains 
are being slowly, surely rent asunder ; and the sun 
sends forth its influence far and wide so that nothing 
is hid from the heat thereof ; it holds the planets in 
their orbits, swings the tides to and fro and ripens 
the harvests. Thus truth and righteousness are 
calmly at work in the spiritual province and are 
destined, ultimately, to restore the world to God. 

If these things are so, it behooves all Christians to 
be loyal to the Church. " Pray for the peace of Jeru- 
salem. They shall prosper that love thee. For my 
brethren and companion's sake will I now say, Peace 
be within thee." Is it not an uplifting thought that 
we are embraced in that great fellowship which, under 
various names the whole world over, is engaged in 
the worship and the service of our common Lord ? 
In great cathedrals, in frontier churches by the cross- 
roads, and under the banyan trees in pagan lands, 
they are bending at this moment in devotion to Him. 
O God, enlarge our hearts so that our prayers may 
embrace them all — all who love our Lord Jesus Christ 
in sincerity ; all who abide within the confines of the 
Holy Catholic Church ! 

And what of those who abide without ? Is it not 
a dreary thing to stand alone in the great struggle ? 
To feel that you have no part nor lot in this great 
brotherhood, this co-operative guild of prayer and 
sympathy ? The Ancient Mariner speaks of his weary 
years of wandering thus : 



6o WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



" O wedding guest ! this soul hath been 
Alone on a wide, wide sea, 
So lonely 'twas, that God Himself 
Scarce seemed there to be." 

But the days of his loneliness are over. He has found 
the pleasant companionship of God's people and with 
it strength and comfort unspeakable. 

" O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 
'Tis sweeter far to me 
To walk together to the kirk 
With the goodly company ! " 

The doors of the Church are wide open to all who 
have accepted our Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and 
Friend. We journey to the place whereof the Lord 
has said, " I will give it thee." Come thou with us, 
friend, and we will do thee good. 




CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



" To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth 
heareth my voice." — John xviii. 37. 

What is your idea of God ; that is, of the essential 
God ? Have you any clear conception of him ? 
" Canst thou by searching find him out ? " Has any 
one at any time seen him ? How shall we define him ? 
The best definition of God is this : "God is a Spirit, 
infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." 
But we have merely exchanged one mystery for 
a bundle of mysteries. For every word of your defi- 
nition involves a problem. 

What then ? Are we to remain in ignorance of 
God ? No. He has been pleased to reveal himself 
to us ; as it is written : "In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God ; and the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us." It is not without deep significance that 
Christ is thus characterized as the Word. As 
language is the medium through which we un- 
derstand one another, so Christ is the articu- 
late speech of God. He is God's Word to men. If 
we would wish to understand God, we must look on 
Jesus Christ ; on Christ living, dying and triumphing 
over death. In him we behold all the divine attributes 



(61) 



1 



62 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



and through him we make the acquaintance of God. 

Nor is that all, God has revealed himself also in 
the written Word which is the complement of the 
incarnate Word, Each of these is theanthropic ; 
that is, divinely begotten but humanly born. To the 
viigin mother it was said : " The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee and the Holy Thing which shall be 
born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Of the 
Scriptures it is written • " Holy men of God spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In both cases, 
whether in flesh or on parchment, it should follow 
that the Word is absolutely true because it is begot- 
ten of God. 

This being so, we should expect the Incarnate 
Word and the written Word to be true to each other. 
Is the Bible loyal to Christ? Distinctly so. It repre- 
sents him everywhere in glowing colors, now in the 
manger, now as a wayfaring man, now with a face 
marred and defiled with blood and spitting, now re- 
splendent with the heavenly glory, but always beau- 
tiful, chiefest among ten thousand and altogether 
lovely. It nowhere disparages him. It nowhere 
calls in question his absolute perfection as the only 
begotten and well-beloved Son of God. Is Christ on 
the other hand true to the Bible ? How does he re- 
gard it ? What has he to say about it ? 

We profess to be Christians. That means not 
simply that we trust in Jesus Christ for our deliver- 
ance from the unquenchable fire, but that we follow 
him implicitly in all things. In every question of 
truth and conduct his decision is supreme and ulti- 
mate for us. If, therefore, we can determine what 
he thought about the Bible, that will conclusively 
determine our opinion of it. 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



63 



At this moment we are discussing the truth of the 
Scriptures. On one side a small minority, for whom 
eminent scholarship in these premises is claimed, in- 
sist that the Bible is not trustworthy ; that it is a 
mingled tissue of truth and falsehood ; that consider- 
able sections of it are purely fabulous ; that whole 
books are downright forgeries ; and that not one book 
of the entire canon of Old Testament Scriptures can 
be relied upon as absolutely true. On the other 
hand, a great majority of God's people hold what is 
called the traditional view, to wit : that when God 
produced the original autograph of the Scriptures 
through his chosen writers, it was true ipsissima verba j 
that in the transcription of many centuries a few 
wholly unimportant and insignificant errors have 
crept in ; but that the Scriptures as we have them in 
the received version can be absolutely trusted in all 
points, scientific, philosophic and historic ? as well as 
in matters pertaining to the spiritual life. 

How shall we pass upon the merits of this contro- 
versy ? For those who profess to be Christians the 
way is clear. If we can discover what the Lord 
Jesus Christ thought of the Bible and said about it, 
that must determine our view. As followers of Jesus 
Christ we must go not to any syndicate of so-called 
" Biblical experts," but to our Master himself as ulti- 
mate authority in this matter. When he speaks the 
controversy ends for all who love and follow him. 

But there are those, strange to say, who are un- 
willing to concede this. They say " Christ had his 
limitations." It is granted that our Lord, in subject- 
ing himself to the conditions of our earthly life, was 
pleased to lay aside the full exercise of his divine 
powers ; he held his omniscience in abeyance and also 



64 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



his omnipotence and omnipresence, but at any given 
moment he could summon these at will. His limita- 
tions were not such, however, as to expose him to the 
liability of error or to the danger of uttering an un- 
truth. To assert this would be to say a monstrous 
thing, for it would reduce our divine Teacher to the 
level of Plato, Mohammed and Joseph Smith. It is 
manifest that this position is not possible to any fol- 
lower of Christ. One of the fathers of modern Uni- 
tarianism was indeed pleased to say on a certain oc- 
casion, when reminded of a divine statement, "I am 
not willing to receive that upon the authority of any 
such person as God." It is related, also, that in a 
recent meeting of evangelical ministers the question 
being asked, " If Moses did not write the Pentateuch, 
why did Jesus Christ say that he did ? " a voice re- 
plied : " Because he did not know any better." It is 
to be hoped that such an assertion will find no echo 
among such as sincerely profess to be the disciples of 
Christ. 

As if to anticipate the current objection to his tes- 
timony, on the ground of his human limitations, it 
was asserted by our Lord that God the Father was 
himself responsible for all his teaching. He said : 
"I»can do nothing of myself"; and again: "My 
teaching is not mine, but his that sent me " ; and 
again : " I speak not of myself, but the Father who 
sent me hath given me a commandment what I shall 
say" ; and again : "The things which I speak, even 
as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak " ; and 
again : " The word which ye hear is not mine, but the 
Father's which sent me." So that to question the 
teaching of the Lord Jesus, with respect to the Scrip- 
tures, is not merely to doubt the statement of one who 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



65 



was under human conditions, but it is to call in ques- 
tion the veracity of the living God. 

Let us proceed now to an enquiry as to the atti- 
tude of Christ toward the written Word of God. 

I. He knew it. He was thoroughly familiar with 
it. He had learned it memoriter at his mother's knee 
and in the rabbinical schools. At twelve years of age 
he was able to discuss with the religious teachers of 
Israel, from their standpoint in the Jewish oracles, 
the great problems of the endless life. At the begin- 
ning of his ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth he 
opened the book at the prophecy of Isaiah and strange- 
ly enough at a passage which the destructive critics 
have refused to assign to Isaiah, and read : " The 
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." In his 
discourses he quoted generously from the Old Testa- 
ment ; from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, 
Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, Micah, Joel, Zechariah, and 
Malachi. His memory was saturated with it. 

II. He revered the Bible as the Word of God. We 
are told nowadays that in order to arrive at an im- 
partial judgment as to the meaning and truth of the 
Scriptures, we must needs dispossess ourselves of all 
prejudgments respecting their divineness and regard 
them simply as a book among books. But Jesus was 
obviously not of this opinion. It will probably be 
conceded in most quarters that he was himself a 



66 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



"Biblical expert " ; yet he seems never to have dis- 
possessed himself of the idea that the Scriptures were 
wholly trustworthy and wholly from God. To his 
mind the Book appeared to stand alone and peerless. 
He was not unfamiliar with rabbinical literature ; he 
knew about the Talmud with its interminable disqui- 
sitions on truth and morals ; he knew the Mishna and 
the Gemara ; but he never put these upon the same 
level with the Scriptures. How vigorously he de- 
nounced the traditions of the elders. How his " But 
I say unto you " went crashing through the foolish 
fables and prescripts with which the elders had over- 
laid the Word of God! But never a word against 
the Scriptures. So far as we can determine, he held 
the "traditional view " of their trustworthiness. He 
spoke of them not as " containing " truth, but as be- 
ing truth ; not as " containing " the Word, but as 
being the Word of God. 

III. He stood voucher for the Truth of its most dif- 
ficult parts. It is a strange coincidence, if nothing 
more, that in his discourses he touched reverently 
upon those very portions of Scripture which are most 
vigorousty assailed in these days. 

As to the Pentateuch, he not only endorsed its 
trustworthiness, but repeatedly referred its author- 
ship to Moses. As where he asked, " Did not Moses 
give you the Law ? " And with respect to Deuter- 
onomy, which the destructive critics have pronounced 
to be a substantial forgery, he placed a peculiar 
sanction upon it. In his temptation in the wilder- 
ness he repelled the adversary on each occasion by a 
reference to Deuteronomy : " It is written, Man shall 
not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceeded out of the mouth of God " ; " It is written, 



CHRIST AND THE- BIBLE. 



6 7 



Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve " ; " It is written, Thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God." A critic of the modern 
school has recently said, "The Bible is no better than 
a mass book for stopping a bullet, nor as good as 
holy water for putting out a fire." But our divine 
Master made the book of Deuteronomy an effective 
shield against the missiles of the adversary and put 
out the fierce fires of temptation with waters from 
" Siloa's brook that flows fast by the oracles of God." 

As to the science of the Scriptures, our Lord en- 
dorsed the cosmogony of Moses and those early 
records upon which rest the ethnology and philology 
of our time. The assault upon the science of the 
Scriptures is by no means recent. Julian the apostate 
in his time undertook to cast reproach upon it. But 
while the theories of " science falsely so-called " have 
passed through kaleidoscopic changes along the path 
of the centuries, the Bible holds its own. And when 
such scientists as Dana, Guyot and Faraday assert 
its substantial truth, we do not feel called upon to 
withdraw our faith in it. 

As to the history of the Old Testament, our Lord 
put his distinct sanction upon it and the recent re- 
searches of archaeologists have furnished a cumula- 
tive confirmation of its truth. Prof. Sayce says that 
no less than seventy-seven events in Assyrian History, 
as given in Scripture, have been corroborated by re- 
cent excavations. In any case, however, the impor- 
tant fact is that Jesus Christ never called these his- 
toric annals in question, but positively, as well as 
tacitly, put his endorsement upon them. 

As to prophecy. The pastor of one of our evan- 
gelical churches has said, " I know of no one passage in 



68 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



the Prophets which can certainly be said to point to 
an event beyond the near future of the writer." If 
so, then Jesus was certainly mistaken when he said, 
"Moses wrote of me" ; and again, "These are they 
which testify of me." He found the Old Testament 
full of predictions respecting himself and his re- 
demptive work, and of predictions pointing to history 
still in the remote future, to the events of the last 
days. 

As to those particular parts of the record which 
have been most bitterly assailed by the modern 
school of critics, it should be enough to mention our 
Lord's reference to and implied endorsement of the 
story of Adam and Eve, Abel, Noah and the Flood, 
Abraham, the destruction of Sodom, Lot's wife, Jacob's 
ladder, Moses and the burning bush, the manna, the 
brazen serpent, David, Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, 
Elijah raising the widow's son, Elisha and Naaman, 
and Jonah. As to the story of Jonah in the whale's 
belly our Lord adventured the truth of his entire 
ministry upon it. The Jews clamored for a sign ; he 
said, " There shall no sign be given, but the sign of 
Jonas the prophet ; for as Jonas was three days and 
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of 
Man be three days and three nights in the heart of 
the earth." Yet we are told that this story of Jonah 
is a fable pure and simple, no more trustworthy than 
that of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp. To what 
an ignoble climax does this bring the confident 
challenge of Christ ; as if he had said, "As sure as 
Aladdin wrought wonders by rubbing his lamp, so 
surely shall I bring life and immortality to light!" 

At this point, having observed our Lord's calm 
acceptance of the truth of the old oracles with never 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



69 



a word of depreciation or of adverse reflection upon 
them in any way, it will be profitable to mark some 
of the statements made by leaders of the Higher 
Criticism with respect to the same book.* We begin 
with Kuenen, who may be regarded as the foremost 
among them. He says, with reference to the whole 
Bible, "In the eyes of the writers everything was 
subordinate to their object, so that they often sacri- 
ficed what we consider very important interests to it, 
historical truth, for example. As a rule they con- 
cerned themselves very little with the question 
whether what they narrated really happened so or 
not. This is why the Old and New Testaments are 
so full of legends." As to the history of the Patri- 
archs, " This legend was invented by the writer him- 
self." " We no longer accept his statements as true." 
As to the Flood, "We cannot give any high position 
to this legend." "The Exodus, the wandering, the 
passage of the Jordan, and the settlement in Canaan, 
as they are described in the Hexateuch, are simply 
impossible"; "The representation of all this in the 
Hexateuch is absurd " ; " The representation of the 
Mosaic times and of the settlement in Canaan which 
the Hexateuch gives us is, as a whole, contradicted 
by veritable history." 

Knappert : " The Old Testament is rich in legends 
and myths. We may take as examples the stories of 
the first human pair, the Fall, Cain and Abel, the 
Deluge, the tower of Babel, God's appearance to 
Abraham, and Jacob's wrestling. These stories have 
no historical foundation whatever" ; "When a proph- 
et or priest related something about bygone times 



* Selected from Prof. Howard Osgood's— -4 If one love me, he will keep 
my word." 



7o 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



he never hesitated to modify what he knew of the 
past, and he did not think twice about touching it up 
from his own imagination, simply that it might be 
more conducive to the end he had in view and chime 
in better with his opinion. Our own notions of honor 
and good faith would never permit this." 

Wellhausen's " History of Israel ": " The historical 
sphere created by itself is nowhere to be found with- 
in actual history. Thus it holds itself in the air by 
its own waistband " ; " The dislocation of the narra- 
tive by monstrous growths of legislative matter is not 
to be imputed to the editor ; it is the work of the un- 
edited Priest Code, and is certainly intolerable"; 
^Lifeless itself, it has driven the life out of Moses 
and out of the people, nay, out of the very Deity." 

It is full of historical fictions"; " the audacity of 
its numbers is not proportioned to their trustworthi- 
ness " ; " all confidence in it is lost " ; " it is hard to 
give an idea of its pedantry," "its incredible in- 
sipidity " ; all these characteristics are shown in 
Genesis where it reveals "its horrid scheming," "its 
insipid contemplation of nature." 

Dillman : The Hexateuch is not "an authentic 
picture of the legislation of Moses." "Where the 
author had no historical accounts he sketches freely 
an imaginary picture, e.g., Noah's ark, course of the 
Flood, tabernacle (after the manner of a movable holy 
tent, richly furnished), the order of the camp and 
march, the determination of the boundaries of the 
tribes by lot under Joshua, the numbers of each 
tribe in Moses' day, the quantity of manna that fell, 
etc." " These are not to be taken historically." 

Reuss* "History of the Old Testament": The 
Exodus, "A bald fiction is the tabernacle, the camp 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



71 



and the arranged parade march in the desert, the 
large numbers of the pretended census, and many- 
other things that exceed by far the old sagas, and are 
really not sagas of the early days but dreams of an 
impoverished generation." 

Holzinger's " Introduction to Hexateuch ": " The 
most numerous and worst possibilities in the Hexa- 
teuch are from the sagas" ; "the whole chronology 
of the earliest history is worthless " ; " its name-lists 
are bare-faced inventions " ; it abounds in " gross, 
sheer, mechanically enlarged miracles " ; "its histori- 
cal presuppositions of the giving of the law are 
whimsies that force a smile " ; " the old idea of in- 
spiration is impossible with this hypothesis." 

Smend's " History of Old Testament Religion" : 
" It seems almost a silly trick when the author of the 
Priest Code makes the Sabbath a duty because God 
rested on that day " ; " prophetic inspiration, in the 
Hebrew idea, did not mean anything peculiar " ; " the 
Israelities received the Sabbath from the Canaanites " ; 
"the representation of the Pentateuch proves itself 
not historical"; "the lawgiver of the Pentateuch 
certainly was not Moses " ; "a heathen myth is the 
substance of Genesis i,, a product of Babylonian 
science ";" the life of Abraham is unthinkable and 
false"; "there was no covenant of God with Abra- 
ham. That was the invention of a later age and 
dated back." 

Piepenbring's " Theology of the Old Testament" : 
"The Priest Code, the heart of the Pentateuch, is 
legend, myth, saga, tradition, and not trustworthy, a 
proved historical fiction, bald, transparent fiction, 
artifice, fantasy, false history, whimsies that force a 
smile, absurd, impossible, contradictory and incon- 



72 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



ceivable, unthinkable and false, a bare-faced in- 
vention." 

Riehm's " Introduction to Old Testament ": " Not 
only did the authors of the Pentateuch compose the 
speeches of the actors, as freely as Thucydides or 
Livy, but they also gave themselves to more or less 
free reconstruction of the popular tradition " ; 
"Either this history must have been given to the 
narrators by revelation, or by historical archives in 
addition to the popular saga. Neither is the fact " ; 
"Their peculiar character makes on the unprejudiced 
mind the clear impression that they are not history 
but saga." 

In commenting upon an imposing array of such 
statements from the leaders of the Higher Criticism, 
Prof. Osgood wisely says, "It is not possible o?i any theory 
to avoid the real issue. If this criticism {i.e., the Higher 
Criticism) is true, Christ was the greatest of false prophets 
and deceivers. If Christ taught God's truth, this criticism 
is absolutely false." 

IV. Our Lord made use of the Scriptures in his per- 
sonal life. He lived by them. In hours of weariness, 
of stern struggle and suffering in the wilderness, in 
his missionary journeys, and in the anguish of the 
cross, he drank from them as from a brook by the 
way. 

And he commended these Scriptures to us for 
practical use. He said : "Search the Scriptures for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life and these are they 
which testify of me." (i) Search them. How shall 
we search them ? If we are desirous of knowing the 
full meaning of a penitent's tear, we would scarcely 
proceed by making a chemical analysis of it. If we 
wish to understand the song of a sky-lark, we do not 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



73 



dissect its throat, but watch it when it rises from the 
meadow on a dewy morning and listen while it pours 
out its melodious soul on its upward way. To un- 
derstand the brain of Milton we do not ask an anato- 
mist to tell us of its gray matter and phosphorus, but 
we listen to the poet as, in Paradise Lost, he tells of 
visions seen through heaven's open gates. Search 
the Scriptures, in like manner, reverently as if for 
hid treasure. (2) And apply them ; for in them we 
rightly think we have eternal life. Here is our 
salvation in the story of the cross. Here, also, is the 
material for our sanctification. The old-fashioned 
Book is a quarry of unhewn stone waiting to be cut 
and laid in the splendid fabric of character. " Sancti- 
fy them by thy truth," prayed Jesus for his disciples 
and added, "Thy word is truth." Here, also, is our 
commission for service. The Scriptures are our 
sealed orders where each for himself must read what 
the Master would have him do for the upbuilding of 
the Kingdom of God. 

I offer, not without reluctance, a page from my 
personal history with which to close this earnest 
word in behalf of the blessed Book. One of the 
earliest memories of my boyhood is Gf a dear father 
whose faith was for many years reposed in Paine's 
"Age of Reason." One winter's day as I stood beside 
my mother's knee, he entered the room with that 
book in his hand and, throwing it into the fire, said 
simply, "Wife, there's an end of it." That night he 
took down the old family Bible and gathered his sons 
and daughters about him for prayer. His last years 
were spent in simple faith in the veracity o£ God's 
Word. On my leaving home to attend school his last 
injunction was, " Be true to the Good Book." Long 



74 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 



afterward, when I was summoned by telegraph to 
come and pray with him in his last illness, on enter- 
ing the room, I said : " Father, it's too bad that an old 
man should suffer so at the last." He answered, " My 
son, bring the Book" ; and I brought it, and by his 
direction read from the eighth chapter of Romans 
until I came to the place where it is written : " I 
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be 
revealed in us." There he bade me pause and left 
that bequest with me. In memory, not only of that 
venerable saint, but of ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand who like him have "known their Bibles true,'' 
who have found them trustworthy in their pains and 
troubles, and a staff to lean upon in the valley of 
the shadow, nay, more in reverence of the great 
Teacher who alway believed it, devoutly preached 
it, and never in word or syllable, in hint or sugges- 
tion, ever disparaged it, I bid you also have confi- 
dence in the Scriptures. Be true to the Word of God. 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST? 

" Art thou he that should come ? or look we for another ? "—Luke vii. 19. 

The solidarity of the race is approved by a curi- 
ous agreement among all nations as to certain funda- 
mental facts. One of these is the garden of Eden 
with Adam and Eve — whether under that name or 
not, is unimportant — sinless and happy, walking 
with God in the cool of the day. Then something 
happens — call it " The Fall " or whatever you please 
— a catastrophe by which man is driven from the 
Garden and exposed to all the sorrows which attend 
on sin. 

Just here, however, there comes in a universal hope 
of deliverance. All the false religions, as well as 
the true, point to a coming One who shall overthrow 
the adversary and restore the race to its original 
estate. The Greek told of Soter; the Romans of Her- 
cules, who killed the dragon that watched the apple in 
the Garden of Hesperides ; the Persians of Sosiosh, 
who was to settle the controversy between Ormuzd the 
Good, and Ahriman the Black, and so bring ultimate 
happiness to all ; the Hindoos of Vishnu planting 
his foot upon the serpent's head ; the Egyptians of 
Osiris going down to Hell to subdue the Evil One. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that the Jewish Scrip- 
tures are full of this prophecy. No sooner had man 
fallen than the protevangel came, to-wit : " The seed 

(75) 



7 6 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head " ; a 
dim prophecy at first, but growing brighter and 
brighter with each succeeding seer until in Isaiah we 
behold this deliverer of royal blood and majestic pres- 
ence, his visage " so marred, more than any man's " 
and tottering under the burden of the world's sin. 

If these prophecies, with all the legends and 
traditions of the false religions, and all the indistinct 
but universal Messianic hopes and longings of the 
soul, were combined into a composite photograph 
they would make an exact portrait of Jesus the 
Christ. 

At the beginning of the Christian Era there was 
a wide-spread feeling that the fulness of time had 
come for the appearing of this expected One. All 
nations seem to have been on the qui vive. The 
Persian magi were watching the stars. It was at 
this time that Virgil wrote his famous Eclogue on the 
birth of a son to the consul Pollio : 

"The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes, 
Renews is finished course ; Saturnian times 
Roll round again ; and mighty years, begun 
From their first orb, in radiant circles run. 
The base, degenerate, iron offspring ends, 
A golden progeny from heaven descends. . . . 
See laboring Nature calls thee to sustain 
The nodding frame of heaven and earth and main ! 
See to their base restored earth, seas, and air, 
And joyful ages from behind in crowding ranks appear." 

The general expectancy may be perceived in the fact 
that at this time there were no less than fifty-eight 
spurious Messiahs. The claims of all these, however, 
were quickly dissipated and only Jesus of Nazareth 
has been left to receive the cumulative homage of 
succeeding generations as the Christ of God. 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



77 



John the Baptist was a prisoner in Machaerus, a 
dreary castle overlooking the Dead Sea. His race 
was run. He had served as the forerunner of Jesus, 
saying, " There cometh one after me whose shoe's 
latchet I am not worthy to unloose. He shall in- 
crease but I shall decrease. Behold the Lamb of 
God ! " In his prison he heard of the discourses of 
Jesus, how he rejected the Jewish traditions, how 
he cast aside the fetters of the ceremonial law. He 
was alone and despondent. "The eye of the caged 
eagle was dimmed." Was it strange if in this ex- 
igency his faith failed him ? So he sent two of his 
disciples to Jesus to ask, " Art thou he that should 
come ? or look we for another ? " 

The problem of Messiah is the problem of the 
ages. Jesus is the claimant. Is this Jesus the Christ 
or not ? All earnest souls are interested in this 
query. 

" We walk at high noon, and the bells 
Call to a thousand oracles, 
But the sound deafens, and the light 
Is stronger than our dazzled sight ; 
The letters of the sacred Book 
Glimmer and swim beneath our look ; 
Still struggles in the Age's breast 
With deepening agony of quest 
The old entreaty : ' Art thou he, 
Or look we for the Christ to be ? ' " 

A weaver who had made an elaborate piece of 
tapestry hung it, stretched upon the tenter-hooks, 
in his yard. That night it was stolen. A piece of 
tapestry was found by the officers which seemed to 
answer the description, but as the pattern was not 
unlike that of other fabrics, there must be definite 



73 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



proof. It was brought to the weaver's yard and 
there the perforations in the fabric were found to 
correspond precisely to the tenter-hooks. This was 
demonstration. In like manner if we place the life 
and character of Jesus over against all prophecies of 
Messiah in Scripture, in the sacred books of the false 
religions, and in the universal longings of the race, 
we shall find that there is a perfect correspondence 
point by point. If this shall indeed prove to be the 
fact, we should feel justified in saying that Jesus of 
Nazareth is indeed the long-looked-for Messiah, the 
Christ of God. 

I. His birth. It is everywhere agreed in these 
legends and prophecies that the Messiah must be 
God-man. He must be capable of suffering in order 
that he may deliver the race from the penalty of sin. 
The thought of suffering is set forth in all sacrifices. 
Every hope of the Messiah on earth is stained with 
blood. The Greeks called it ichor; a superior kind 
of blood. 

God cannot suffer, for he has " neither body, 
parts nor passions." The Messiah must, therefore, 
be man in order that he may be capable of pain. 
But he must be God, also, to the end that he may 
suffer enough to atone for all ages and generations 
of the children of men. This is the basis of Anselm's 
famous argument, Cur Deus Homo. The Messiah 
must in his nature be like Jacob's Ladder ; his 
humanity resting upon the earth and his divinity 
taking hold upon the throne of God. At this point 
Jesus meets the requirement. Of him it had been 
prophesied, " A virgin shall conceive and bear a son 
and call his name Emmanuel, which being inter- 
preted is, God with us." 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



79 



II. His character. The One who is to deliver the 
race from its sin must himself be sinless. But where 
shall such an One be found ? We peer, by the light 
of Diogenes' lantern, into all human faces in vain. 
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Here 
Jesus of Nazareth is unique. He shows no con- 
sciousness of sin, utters no cry of penitence, and 
betrays no concern for his own salvation. On the 
other hand he challenges the world to find a joint in 
the harness of his perfect righteousness. The school- 
men of the Middle Ages discussed at great length 
the question whether he was " not able to sin or able 
not to sin " : but they never suggested that he 
sinned. The judge who delivered him to death 
brought him out to Gabbatha and said to the people, 
"I find no fault in him at all." The centurion, who 
had charge of his execution, was moved to cry, 
" Verily, this was a righteous man ! " 

III. His preaching. The general feeling was, as 
the woman of Samaria said, " That the Messiah, when 
he cometh, would tell us all things." He was to 
solve the great questions of duty and destiny. The 
carpenter of Nazareth did this. He touched the 
great problems of the eternal life with a bold hand. 
He taught not as the scribes but with authority. He 
untied knots that had defied all the Athenian schools. 
The sermons of others die by limitation. Origen, 
Tertullian, Chrysostom, their voices have left only a 
lingering echo. But the discourses of Jesus, his ser- 
mon to Nicodemus, his sermon on the mount, his 
sermon at the well, his sermon in the plain, his ser- 
mon in the upper chamber, his sermon on the mount 
of ascension are still "burning thoughts in breathing 
words," and they flame around the world. A detach- 



8o 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST? 



ment of Roman soldiers was sent to arrest him as he 
was once teaching in Solomon's porch. They listened 
for a time and were amazed and benumbed. On re- 
turning without their prisoner, they were asked, 
" Why have ye not brought him ? " A strange 
answer was this, " Never man spake like this man ! " 

IV. His miracles. These were unlike all other 
miracles. Not only in their beneficence, but in the 
fact that they were all symbolical of spiritual truth. 
The opening of blind eyes set forth the power of 
Jesus to enable the soul to see spiritual things. The 
wiping away of the leper's spots was an apologue of 
the power of the gospel to deliver the soul from the 
defilement of sin. The healing of the paralytic gave 
assurance that Jesus could energize the palsied will ; 
and the raising of Lazarus was but a shadow picture 
of what the Mighty One is ever doing in bringing 
forth those who are dead in trespasses and sins from 
the dark sepulchre of an endless despair into new- 
ness of life. The messengers whom John the Baptist 
sent to ask, "Art thou he that should come ? or look 
we for another ? " were told to stand aside and see 
what they should see. Then, after he had wrought 
wonders before them, he said, " Go, tell John what 
ye have seen ; how that the blind see, the lame walk, 
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are 
raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." 

V. His death. This is the living centre of the 
gospel. All prophecies, all mythological legends, all 
longings call for the vicarious death of the Messiah. 
Prometheus, chained to the rock with the vulture 
gnawing at his vitals, cries out, " I must endure this 
until one of the gods shall come and bear it for me." 
The penalty of sin is death ; as it is written, "The 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



81 



soul that sinneth it shall die." If the Messiah is to 
deliver the race from its penalty, he must die for it. 
So here we witness Jesus staggering up the slope of 
Calvary under the burden of his cross — a mighty 
Atlas bearing a world of sin upon him. The infidel 
Rousseau was forced to pay involuntary tribute to 
the character of Jesus in this pre-eminent act of self- 
sacrifice. He says, " Is it possible that this sacred 
personage should be a mere man ? Do we find that 
he assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious 
sectary ? What sweetness, what purity in his manner! 
What an affecting gracefulness in his instructions ! 
What sublimity in his maxims ! What profound 
wisdom in his discourses ! What presence of mind, 
what subtlety, what fitness, in his replies ! How 
great the command over his passions. Where is the 
man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so 
die, without weakness, and without ostentation? 
When Plato describes his imaginary just man, yet 
loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting 
the highest rewards of virtue, he describes trait by trait 
the character of Jesus Christ ; and the resemblance is so 
striking, that all the Church Fathers perceived it. 
What prepossession, what blindness must it be to 
compare the son of Sophroniscus to the Son of Mary ! 
What an infinite disproportion between them ! The 
Spartans were a sober people before Socrates recom- 
mended sobriety. Before he had even defined virtue, 
his country abounded in virtuous men. But where 
could Jesus learn, among his contemporaries, that 
pure and sublime morality of which he only has given 
us both precept and example? The greatest wisdom 
was made known amid the most bigoted fanaticism ; 
and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did 



82 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST? 



honor to the vilest people on earth. The death of 
Socrates, peacefully philosophizing among friends, appears 
the most agreeable that one could wish : while that of 
Jesus, expiring in agonies, abused, insulted, a?i,d accused by 
a whole nation, is the most horrible that one could fear. 
Socrates, indeed, in receiving the cup of hemlock, blessed the 
weeping executioner who administered it j but Jesus, 
amidst excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless 
tormentors. Yes, verily, if the life and death of Socrates 
were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those 
of a God." 

VI. His resurrection from the dead. This, also, 
appears in the universal foregleam of Messiah. He, 
who is to deliver the world from death, cannot him- 
self be subject to it. The Holy One must not " see 
corruption " ; his soul must not be left in sheol. The 
resurrection of Jesus is God's amen put upon his 
redemptive work. In this we, who have fellowship 
with Christ, triumph over death and hell ; as it is 
written, " Now is Christ risen from the dead and be- 
come the first fruits of them that slept. So is 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy 
sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of 
death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But 
thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ ! " 

VII. His abiding presence. The crowning proof of 
the Messiahship of Jesus lies in the fact that, having 
finished the work of his ministry, he did not abandon 
the world to its fate, but took up his abode among us. 
He organized the Church through which he now ad- 
ministers his redemptive work by the influence of 
his Spirit, and will continue so to do until the kingdoms 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



83 



of this world shall become his own. His energetic 
presence is manifest in three tremendous facts. (1) 
Regeneration. This is his great miracle which he is 
performing all the while among us. You and I have 
seen it many a time — a man taken out of his sin and 
shame and set upon his feet with new hopes and as- 
pirations, a new man in Christ Jesus. Napoleon ex- 
pressed his unspeakable wonder at the fact that 
"This Jesus of Nazareth stretches his hand across 
the centuries and makes the demand for a human 
heart and gets it ! " It is indeed true. He says, 
" My son, give me thy heart," and there is a com- 
plete surrender. This is the wonder of regeneration, 
the blending of a human soul under the power of the 
personal Christ with the soul of God. (2) Sanctifi- 
cation ; that is, the growth of the regenerate soul in 
character and in the knowledge of truth. This 
growth is accomplished under the influence of the 
Spirit in the mere imitation of Christ. I have seen 
art students sitting under Correggio's face of Jesus in 
the cathedral at Cologne copying the beautiful feat- 
ures of that portrait with infinite pains. A similar 
thing, in a larger sphere, is going on the world over ; 
a great multitude that no man can number are 
earnestly and prayerfully seeking to be more like 
Jesus. And the consummation of that effort is Chris- 
tian character ; the master piece of human life. (3) 
Evangelization. Christ is working through that 
great living organism which we call The Universal 
Church, and every day is winning new triumphs to 
the glory of his Messianic name. This is the "phi- 
losophy of history." The cross of Jesus leads the 
march of progress. Civilization is but the brighter 
shining of his face. All things are moving on in a 



84 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



celestrial order toward that golden age in which 
" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his suc- 
cessive journeys run." 

Thus it appears that the character and work of 
Jesus of Nazareth meet, at every point, the require- 
ments of the Messianic prophecy. Do we still cry, 
"Show us a sign " ? See yonder the bright angel of 
progress, whom Milton painted, with torch in hand, 
the name of the Nazarene upon his brow, ushering in 
the glory of the latter day ! See yonder the great 
procession, ever increasing in numbers, leading on 
the triumphal advent with the cry, " Hosanna ! 
hosanna ! blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord." 

We speak of " honest doubt." There is such a 
thing. Doubt is either the painful wavering of a noble 
nature or the boastful frivolity of a fool. To be in 
"honest doubt" is to be ever in pain. A man who 
has questioned seriously whether or not Jesus is the 
Messiah, will rejoice with great joy over any demon- 
stration of the truth. A reasoning faith will solve the 
problem. The two Pilgrims on their way to the 
Celestial City were given over to doubt and de- 
spondency in Doubting Castle. They had been 
beaten by Giant Despair with a crab-tree cudgel. 
On Saturday about midnight they began to pray and 
continued in prayer until almost the break of day. 
The Christian, as one half amazed, brake out into 
this passionate speech, " What a fool," quoth he, "am 
I thus to lie in a dungeon when I may as well walk at 
liberty. I have a key in my bosom that will, I am 
persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle." Then 
said Hopeful, " That is good news, my brother ; pluck 
it out of thy bosom and try." And as he turned the 



IS JESUS THE CHRIST ? 



85 



key, the door flew open with ease and Christian and 
Hopeful both came out. A willingness to believe ; 
a simple rational faith, not blind credulity, but faith 
founded on evidence, is the key which will ever open 
doubting castle. Hast thou been questioning, good 
friend, as to whether or no this Jesus is the Christ? 
Pluck the key out of thy bosom and try. 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 

" Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come : 
but woe unto him, through whom they come ! It were better for him 
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, 
than that he should offend one of these little ones."— Luke xvii. i, 2. 

The word here rendered " offense " is in the orig- 
inal ska?idalon, which we have in our English words 
scandal and scandalized. Its literal meaning is, a 
stumbling-block. Our Lord made use of it when re- 
proving Peter for suggesting that the cross was un- 
necessary. " Get thee behind me, Satan ! " he said, 
" Thou art an offense unto me " ; that is, thou art a 
stumbling-block in my way. The cross is itself re- 
ferred to as a skandalon j as where it is written, "We 
preach Christ crucified ; to the Jews a stumbling- 
block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them that 
are saved, the wisdom and the power of God." In like 
manner Christ is spoken of as a stone of stumbling 
and a rock of offense. And he said of himself, 
''Blessed are they that are not offended in me." 

The application in the present instance, however, 
is to such as by their life and conduct lay difficulties 
in the way of those who might otherwise come into 
the Kingdom of God. 

I. A man may be an offense to himself; that is, he 
may lay stumbling-blocks in his own way. A vicious 
temper, a prejudice against truth or sound morals, a 
bad habit of any sort, may be the obstacle to a man's 

(86) 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



87 



progress toward the higher life. Thus he may be 
indeed his own worst enemy. It is of such offenses 
that the Lord spake when he said, " If thine eye of- 
fend thee, pluck it out ; or if thy right hand offend 
thee, cut it off ; it were far better for thee to go blind 
or maimed into life, than with two hands or two eyes 
to be cast into hell fire." It is recorded of Arch- 
bishop Cranmer that when he was tied to the stake 
and the fagots were kindled, he thrust his right hand 
into the flame — the hand that had signed his recan- 
tation and committed him to falsehood and con- 
tempt — saying, " O, thou unworthy hand, thou shalt 
burn first ! " It were well for us all, could we, in like 
manner, put away our darling sins, for in them is the 
possibility of spiritual and eternal death. 

II. The prof essed followers of Christ may offend those 
who are without the church. We are a watched people. 
Our life is likened to the athletic sports of the 
stadium ; we are compassed about by a great crowd 
of witnesses. The galleries are full of those who 
watch our walk and conversation. It is of the ut- 
most importance, therefore, that we should live cir- 
cumspectly lest we, perhaps, inadvertently mislead 
others. 

(1) We may do this by an assumption of "over- 
much righteousness." There is no true helpfulness 
in lachrymose piety. It is a serious mistake to give 
the impression that the Christian life is a monoton- 
ous routine of unrelieved cross-bearing. True life is 
a serious matter to those who, in the fellowship of 
the gospel, have rightly apprehended it. But on the 
other hand it is the most delightsome thing in all the 
world to follow Christ. At his right hand are 
pleasures forevermore. To serve him consistently is 



83 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



to enter into the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding. 

Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for " binding 
heavy burdens and grievous to be borne and lay- 
ing them on men's shoulders." They made long 
prayers and ostentatiously paid tithes of their 
garden herbs. They made the Sabbath intolerable 
by gratuitous exactions, and they made wry faces at 
innocent pleasure. Thus they gave offense to others 
and the woe of the Master was pronounced upon them. 
A similar charge is made against the Puritans, of 
whom a witty historian has said, "They suppressed 
bear-baiting not because the sport troubled the bears, 
but because the people enjoyed it." 

Ail this is contrary to the spirit of Christ who, 
at the marriage in Cana, turned the water into wine 
to indicate that blessed transformation of duty into 
pleasure which comes to all who have rightly appre- 
hended his teaching and his manner of life. If God 
is our Father, if Jesus Christ has indeed suffered for 
our salvation, if by our faith in his atoning work we 
have really entered into the glory and freedom of the 
spiritual life, then why shall we not make merry and 
rejoice in him ! Tasks there are and grave duties 
and responsibilities, but his yoke is easy and his 
burden is light. 

(2) There are those in the church who give of- 
fense by their lawless manner of living. It is 
rumored that there are some, whose names are on the 
church roll as members in good and regular stand- 
ing, who do not pay their honest debts ; some who 
are not strictly honest in their business transactions ; 
some whose word cannot be depended upon. My 
brethren, this ought not so to be. 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



89 



In the reproof which Nathan addressed to David 
respecting his awful sin against Uriah and Bathsheba, 
he said, " By this deed thou hast given occasion to 
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme." In a similar 
reproof which Paul addressed to the Roman Chris- 
tians, he says, " Thou therefore which teachest an- 
other, teachest thou not thyself ? Thou that preach- 
est that a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? 
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, 
dost thou commit adultery ? Thou that abhorrest 
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? Thou that makest 
thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dis- 
honorest thou God ? For the name of God is blas- 
phemed among the Gentiles through you." 

But when all is said with reference to Christian 
inconsistency, it still remains that the example of 
right living should not be looked for in Christians, but 
in Christ himself. We do not set ourselves up as ex- 
amples. We are but strugglers doing our best, and 
quite imperfectly, to attain unto a holy life. Back of 
the church and of all fallible believers stands the 
Perfect One. He is the Great Exemplar. The 
reasonable course is not to look askance at imperfect 
lives, but to look at him in whose life there was no 
guile. 

A large portion of the life of Titian was wasted 
in copying the works of Bellini, and another in 
imitating the masterpieces of Giorgione ; but at 
length he gave up the imitative method and went out 
to study nature— the fields, the mountains, the sun% 
sets, the floating clouds — and thus he made himself 
immortal. Why should thinking people turn their 
gaze upon mere mortal patterns, when Christ is ever- 
before them ? Christ in whom are all the virtues of 



9 o 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



character and all the graces of the higher life. 
Friend, look to Jesus ; he is the chiefest among ten 
thousand and the one altogether lovely. 

When Agesilaiis was invited to hear a man who 
mimicked the nightingale with wondrous art, he re- 
plied, " Why should I, when I have heard the night- 
ingale herself ?" So the man, who has Christ before 
him, is without excuse if he persist in copying the 
questionable life and character of any of his fellow- 
men. 

III. Those who do not follow Christ are in constant 
danger of offending his little ones. So much is said of 
the inconsistencies of Christians that this side of the 
matter is in danger of being overlooked. Yet this 
was the special reference of Christ : " Woe unto the 
world because of offenses," that is, the offenses which 
the world is wont to place before the feet of his little 
ones. The weak, the impressible, the unsophisticated 
and unsuspicious are here tenderly and graciously 
referred to as his little ones. He is very jealous of 
these and will not suffer them to be wronged without 
avenging them. Such are constantly being led astray 
by the world, but "Woe unto him by whom the 
offense cometh. It were better for him that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck and he were 
thrown into the depths of the sea, than that he 
should offend one of my little ones." 

(i) At the time when this admonition was uttered, 
the infant Church was just beginning to suffer from 
grievous persecution ; the sword was being drawn 
from its scabbard, the spark was kindling in the fagots. 
Thanks be to the influence of Christian civilization 
the era of persecution has passed by. The unspeak- 
able Turk is left alone to massacre those who refuse 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



9 I 



to espouse the Moslem faith. But the pointed finger 
is still a mighty power on earth. And there are 
other modes of cruelty no less severe than axe and 
fagot. 

(2) The false teacher has much to answer for. 
Woe to the infidel who leads the unwary astray. Not 
long ago a brilliant infidel discussed the? question, 
"Is life worth living?" advancing the proposition 
that suicide is justifiable under certain conditions. 
An epidemic of suicide followed. The same man is 
now engaged in publicly maligning the Scriptures, 
and a thoughtless multitude of young people are 
Waiting upon him. What an awful power is wielded 
by such a man ! 

In the Wirtz Gallery of Horrors at Brussels there 
is a picture called, " Napoleon's Welcome to Hell," 
in which the maimed and widowed and orphaned 
are represented as stretching forth their hands to 
welcome him into the region of endless pain. If by 
any mischance in the calculation of the great infidel, 
there should be a judgment day, what legions of the 
lost will rise up against him. 

But there are others who, without malignity, but in 
utter thoughtlessness, lend themselves to the work of 
displacing the foundations of truth ; who speak 
against the Scriptures and against the supernatural 
in religion and against the atonement of Christ. 
This is an offense to the weak and the heedless, and 
woe to him by whom the offense cometh. It were 
better for him that a millstone were hanged about 
his neck and that he were thrown into the depths of 
the sea. 

(3) The offense may, also, be given by silent ex- 
ample. It is not necessary for you to say, my friend, 



9 2 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



that you do not believe in God ; simply live as if 
there were no God and the lesson will be taught. 
You do not need to say, " I have no faith in prayer 
or in the Scriptures " ; simply let the Bible lie dust- 
covered upon its shelf and never allow your voice to 
be heard in supplication ; others will take knowledge 
of it. You need not join the multitude who are lead- 
ing Christ to Calvary with shouts of " Crucify him ! 
crucify him ! " hold yourself aloof from the great 
fellowship who receive him as their Redeemer ; that 
will give sufficient token of your attitude toward 
him. In any case your example will be a savor of 
life unto life or of death unto death. 

One who would injure his neighbor's garden need 
not break through and tear up the fragrant plants; let 
him toss a handful of thistle seed aloft and the wind 
will do the rest. A man going from his house to his 
stable on a snowy morning, hears a voice behind him 
calling, "I'm coming right along, Papa." And look- 
ing back he sees his little son lifting his little feet and 
carefully planting them in his footprints. So they 
do ; no man liveth unto himself. Our children walk 
in our footsteps. 

A man may be willing to take his own chances in 
denying truth and living an unholy life, but let him 
think well that he cannot stand alone ; he is the centre 
of a coterie ; he is living or dying for others ; his 
children's children will follow him. 

IV. But there is a positive side to all this. If by 
virtue of the silent, tremendous, self-propagating 
power of influence we are in constant danger of in- 
juring others, by the same token we may be doing 
constant good. The same influence which lays the 
stumbling-block, may stretch forth the helping hand. 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



93 



And blessed be God there are multitudes of people 
who unconsciously make their lives a blessing to all. 

We have recently been called to mourn the death of 
Dr. William G. T. Shedd, It was my privilege years 
ago, as an academy boy on Old Andover Hill, to sit 
under his preaching and afterward I was his pupil in 
Union Theological Seminary, It is a pleasure now 
to recall the kindly influence of this man. He was a 
representative of the conservative school in theology 
and always true to his conception of truth. He was 
" liberal " also in the truest sense of that much-abused 
word ; that is, without surrendering one jot or tittle 
Of his own conviction, he was ready that others, who 
differed with him, should be as positive and dogmatic 
as he was himself. And alwa)^s he was generous and 
helpful. I shall never forget my last brief conversa- 
tion with him in which, as an old man to a younger, 
he spoke in terms of blessing and encouragement. 
So true always, so gentle and kindly, the world 
misses such men. 

As I passed from the sound of the preacher's 
voice in the funeral service, I found myself in 
the presence of Gabriel Max's picture called "The 
Greeting." A maiden doomed to death for her devo- 
tion to Christ stands in the arena. On her left a 
group of lions sated with flesh lie unconcerned ; on 
her right a ravenous beast, with head bent and eyes 
aflame, is just issuing from its cage. The galleries 
are filled with expectant people. At the feet of the 
young martyr a rose has fallen from above. She 
stands with her hand upon a pillar, her eyes, to be 
closed in a moment upon earthly scenes, lifted toward 
the balcony. They search gratefully for the hand 
that has dropped this token of kindness at her feet. 



94 



STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



God be praised we can all do this. The world is full 
of such as are ever facing death ; whose temptations 
seem greater than they can bear, whose burdens are 
breaking their hearts. We may do them a kindness 
as we pass on. We may make their burdens lighter. 
We may make the world better for our walking 
through it. 

That was a great word which the Master spoke : 
" Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have 
lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? Ye are 
the light of the world : let your light so shine before 
men that they may see your good works and glorify 
your Father which is in heaven." 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



"And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If 
thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked 
him, saying. Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condem- 
nation ? And we indeed justly ; for we receive the due reward of our 
deeds but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, 
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said 
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shait thou be with me in para 
dise." — Luke xxiii. 39-43. 

It was on a Friday morning that Jesus was led 
forth to die. And Friday has been hangman's day 
as far back as runneth the memory of man. It was a 
motley company that issued from the Damascus 
gate. The centurion led the way with two qua- 
ternions of soldiers ; then Jesus with the malefactors, 
one on either side ; then a few weeping friends ; and 
finally, the mob — the multitude that is ever drawn ir- 
resistibly by the weird anguish of an execution. So 
they came to Calvary and Jesus was nailed to the 
cross and lifted up between heaven and earth. Then 
the supernatural darkness — night at high noon, and 
within that sombre veil the Lord wrought his last 
miracle. They had bound him fast, but they could 
not rob him of his power to save. His hands, pierced 
and bleeding, had not lost their cunning. He reached 
them forth in that last hour and plucked the penitent 
reprobate from the quicksands of shame and despair, 
in which he was sinking fast, and set his feet upon 
the everlasting rock ! 

But you "do not believe in death-bed conversions?" 
No more do I. A man is a coward who will burn out 

(95) I 



9 6 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



the candle of his life and fling the snuffed wick upon 
the altar of God. A man is a coward and deserves 
no mercy who will spend all his years in sordid toil 
and selfish pleasure and expect to leap into heaven at 
the last, with the cry " God, have mercy ! " upon his 
lips. That is a dangerous venture. If I were you I 
would not try it. But God is sovereign and worketh 
when and where and how he will. And grace is free. 
Wesley never wrote a truer couplet than this, 

" Betwixt the saddle and the ground, 
Mercy sought, is mercy found." 

It has been wisely said that one record of a death- 
bed conversion is given in the Scriptures, so that 
none may ever despair ; but only one, so that none 
may ever presume. We may doubt all other death- 
bed conversions if it pleases us so, but as to this par- 
ticular one there is no question whatever that the 
penitent thief was saved. 

How do we know this ? By incontrovertible evi- 
dence. The word of the Master himself: 11 Verily I 
say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise' 1 
Every word is important here, (a) "Verity." It is 
not often that the Scriptures give us so definite 
an assurance as to the destiny of any man. We have 
a reckless way of assigning people to heaven and 
hell ; but the Scriptures speak in more cautious and 
general terms. As where it is written : " He that be- 
lieveth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, and 
he that believeth not shall be damned." Even in the 
case of Judas, who was guilty of the great treason, it 
is only said that he went "to his own place." The 
word with respect to this penitent thief, however, is 
very positive: " Verily I say unto thee." (b) "To- 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



97 



day thou shalt be with me in paradise." This is the 
only occasion on which Christ uses the word. It 
means, a garden. This man was in the agonies of 
death ; his eye-balls swollen, his limbs twisted in 
anguish ; the hot blood of fever was running through 
his veins, the pain of gangrene was burning through 
his flesh, his lips were parched with a fiery thirst. 
Paradise ! Paradise ! A garden of delights, ripple 
of brooks, rustle of leaves, perfume of flowers, apples, 
pomegranates, clusters of the vine ! 

" Oh happy harbor of God's saints ; 

Oh sweet and pleasant soil. 
In thee no sorrow can be found, 

Nor grief, n~or care, nor toil. 
No dimly cloud o'ershadows thee. 

Nor gloom, nor darksome night ; 
But every soul shines as the sun, 

For God himself gives light. 
Thy gardens and thy goodly walks 

Continually are green, 
Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers 

As nowhere else are seen." 

[c] "To-day with me in paradise." Blessed be God 
for that word ! No purgatory, then. No hundred 
years of penance to burn out the record of the mis- 
lived past, and then the open gates. And no " soul- 
sleeping" — a million years of resting in uncon- 
sciousness to awake at the trumpet sound and sweep 
with the great multitude through the open doors 
of glory. No. " To-day " with Christ. In the morn- 
ing this man was led out from the Damascus gate 
wearing at his neck a titulum, " He dies a thief." 
No friends to pity him ; all saying, "It served him 
right," and it did. But, perhaps, there was a home 
in Jerusalem filled with sorrow for him ; where an old 



98 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



mother sat rocking to and fro, her face in her hands, 
lamenting "Woe is me for my wayward son. He dies 
a felon's death to-day." She dared not lift her face 
and look toward Golgotha, for there was the gallows- 
tree. Her heart was crushed with unspeakable shame, 
but filled with love ; love maternal, love unconquer- 
able, love which man)?- waters cannot quench. But, 
O, had she known ! The garments of her woe would 
have been laid aside and joy would have brightened 
her dim eyes, had she heard the Master's words and 
known their meaning ; for Jesus went before to para- 
dise and stood at the gate of the garden to welcome 
him, saying, " Enter, my beloved ! Eat and drink 
abundantly and be forever with thy Lord." 

But how was this great salvation wrought ? We 
think of the salvation of this dying malefactor as 
a miracle of a most extraordinary sort. It was, 
however, no more a miracle than any other con- 
version, for conversion is in all cases supernatural 
and wrought only by the power of God. We are 
warranted in saying, (i) that this man was not 
saved by his morality. If under such conditions, 
as they say, the past life sweeps before the soul 
as in an awful panorama, then upon what a record 
did the gaze of this malefactor rest ; no generous 
service in the cause of truth and righteousness, 
but sin and shame revels and robberies, violence 
and licentiousness ! And alas ! it was now too 
late to retrieve it. The feet that might have 
gone about on errands ol mercy, were nailed fast. 
The hands that might have dispensed alms and kind- 
ness on every side, were bound to the accursed tree. 
The eyes that might have looked love and sympathy, 
were filmed already with the foreshadowing of death. 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



99 



He could do nothing now to atone for the past. 
Shall we say then that morality is useless ? Oh no. 
It expresses our gratitude for mercies numberless 
and brightens the glory of the great reward. 
But it cannot save : " By the deeds of the law 
shall no flesh be justified." (2) He was not saved 
by his orthodoxy. A creed was of little moment in 
that exigency. He was probably unfamiliar with the 
schools. The propositions of Hillel and Shammai 
were alike to him. The hour had come when all 
truth was reduced to its simplest form. So when 
Archibald Alexander was dying, having been sixty 
years a preacher and forty years a professor in 
Princeton, he said, " All that can help me now is the 
faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners." Creeds and symbols have their 
uses, for all truth is precious beyond rubies, but 
they do not save us. (3) Nor was this man saved by 
the sacraments. He was not a member of the church 
"in good and regular standing." He may never have 
passed the threshold of a synagogue. Here is some- 
what for church members to gaze on. Come and 
see how a man can be saved outside the charmed 
circle. What then ? shall we say the church is use- 
less or the sacraments vain ? Oh no ; they help us 
on to right living after the foundations are laid in 
the new birth, but they cannot save. To trust to 
them for our deliverance is to lean upon a broken 
staff, which will pierce through the hand. 

How then ? By what means was this malefactor 
enabled to pass so wondrously from Golgotha to 
glory ? There were three steps. 

First — Repentance. This man was genuinely 
sorry for his sin. It is one thing to be sorry for sin, 



IOO 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



and another to be sorry for having involved one's 
self in trouble through sin. There is an old saying, 
* No rogue e'er felt the halter draw with good opin- 
ion of the law." But this rogue did. In the very 
article of death he acknowledged the fairness of his 
condemnation. To his comrade who reviled Jesus, 
he said, " Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in 
the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly." In 
that word " justly " he betrayed his own respect for 
the law, and his sorrow for having violated it. 

Second — Faith. The penitent thief believed in 
Jesus Christ. He called him Lord under the most 
adverse conditions. He spoke of his kingdom. 
The Nazarene was dying a shameful death, but this 
man saw through the shame and the blood, and 
perceived that he was a king in disguise. Pilate 
thought that his judgment had put an utter end 
to the influence of Jesus. The Sanhedrin no doubt 
shared in that view. But the thief perceived that, 
in death, Jesus was but prolonging his days and 
that the pleasure of Jehovah should yet prosper in 
his hand. It was little that he asked — remember 
me — but it was enough to shown that he regarded 
Jesus as the dispenser of the patronage of the 
Kingdom. To the chief butler, on leaving prison, 
Joseph said, "Think on me when it shall be well 
with thee " ; but it is written, " Yet did not the chief 
butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." Not so 
did Jesus treat the modest request of the dying 
thief, but at once gave him assurance that he should 
have place with himself in the Kingdom of God. 

Third — Baptism. These are the three conditions 
of spiritual life : repent, believe and be baptized. 
What is baptism ? An outward ordinance signifying 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



IOI 



the washing of the waters of regeneration. It is an 
announcement to the world of the putting away of 
the old man of sin and the putting on of the new life 
in Christ. It is, therefore, made to be appropriately 
the initiatory rite of membership in the church. The 
death-dew on the forehead of the penitent thief was 
the holy chrism. He was received that day by his 
open confession into the assembly of the first-born. 
It was beyond his power to submit himself to the 
outward rite, but he did the very best he could. To 
the utmost of his ability he complied with all the 
conditions which are affixed to the gift of eternal 
life. And God asks no more of any man. 

To this it must be added that the penitent thief 
devoted his whole life to Christ; and salvation is pos- 
sible on no other terms ; as the Master said, " If any 
man will come after me, let him deny himself and 
take up his cross and follow me. Let your light so 
shine before men that they may see your good works 
and glorify God/' He did all that. The life that re- 
mained to him on earth was indeed but a single 
hour, but there are men who live more in an hour 
than others in three-score years and ten. Of Methu- 
selah it is said, "And he lived nine hundred and sixty 
and nine years, and he died." That was all. Dia- 
mond and charcoal are all one ; it is a mere question 
of carbon. There are men whose lives are like a 
wagon-load of charcoal ; others whose lives, though 
brief, are crystallized like a solitaire. So the hour of 
life which remained to the dying thief was so conse- 
crated to divine service in the utterance of a prayer 
which has come down through the ages that it was 
indeed a gem worthy to sparkle in the Master's 
crown. What says Ben Jonson : 



102 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



l< It is not growing like a tree 

In bulk, doth make man better be ; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere : 
A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May, 
Although it fall and die that night, — 
It was the plant and flower of light. 
In small proportions we just beauties see ; 
And in short measures life may perfect be." 

But after all this man was saved not by aught of 
his own doing, but by the sovereign grace of God. 
You have seen the shadows following one another 
swift along the mountain slopes, and looking upward 
have said, "The clouds are casting these shadows." 
It was not the clouds, however, but the sun behind 
them. Repentance, faith and open confession are 
mere conditions. It is the arm of God made bare on 
Calvary that saves us. 

And this divine grace is the same yesterday, to- 
day and forever. The hands that were stretched out 
upon the cross are stretched out still. And he who 
suffered there, now enthroned in light and glory in- 
approachable, is able to save unto the uttermost all 
that will come unto him. The traditional name of 
the penitent thief was Dysmas, meaning " the setting 
sun." The morning of his life had been spent in 
pleasure, its noonday in toil, and its afternoon in sin; 
the night was near. There may be one among those 
to whom this word shall come, who has grown gray 
in rebellion against God. He looks backward over a 
wasted life, lost opportunities, promises unfulfilled, 
sin upon sin. But in this message from Golgotha 



A SERMON FROM THE GALLOWS. 



there is another overture of mercy. There is time 
enough still, but none to lose. For 

". . . . our hearts, though stout and brave, 
Still like muffled drums are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave." 

Do not wait for the uncertain chances of a death-bed 
repentance. You may be bereft of reason, or the 
King of Terrors may come in the twinkling of an 
eye. Now is the accepted time. God speaks : " To- 
day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." 
He is ready to save. The fountain has been opened 
for all uncleanness. 

" The dying thief rejoiced to see 
That fountain in his day ; 
And there may I, though vile as he, 
Wash all my sins away." 

The three crosses still stand on Golgotha. And 
he upon the central cross is lifted up for the rise and 
fall of many; on his left are the impenitent dying for 
themselves alone; on his right are the penitent dying 
in Christ. The tropical line dividing between the 
zones of eternal life and eternal death runs through 
that central cross. The Saviour is in the midst with 
his hands stretched out. Your lot must be on the 
left or right of that eternal line of destiny. It is for 
you to say where it shall be. 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGU- 
RATION. 

" For we have hot followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known 
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor 
and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. 
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice 
which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy 
mount."— II. Pet. i. 16-18. 

The faith of Peter rested in the Messiahship of 
Christ. He believed in his " power and his coming," 
and, his prime reason for this belief lay in the mar- 
vellous thing which he had witnessed on the mount 
of Transfiguration. There were those who said that 
he rested under a delusion ; others, that the event re- 
ferred to was a cunningly devised fable. His answer 
was at hand. Let him tell his own story : 

" It was at the close of our Lord's journey through 
Cesarea-Philippi. By the way he had much to say 
respecting his approaching death. We could not un- 
derstand it. His death ! We expected him to take 
his place upon the Messianic throne and rule in splen- 
dor as the long-predicted Son of David. But he 
spoke of suffering many things at the hands of the 
priests and rabbis and of being put to a shameful 
death. At length we came to Mount Hermon. It 
was toward the close of the day, and, weary as 
we were with journeying, the Master signified that he 
would go apart for a season. So he climbed the 
mountain path ; the two sons of Zebedee and myself 

(104) 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 105 



following close after at his desire. Far to the west 
lay the Mediterranean, glorious in the sunset ; and 
in the distant east the Euphrates ran like a torrent of 
blood among its mountains and historic ruins. At 
length we paused, and, wearied with climbing, fell 
asleep. We were presently awaked by the murmur 
of voices. The Master was changed ; his coarse blue 
garments were like ermine, his face was all aflame as 
the sun shineth in his strength, and two companions 
were with him whom we knew, as by intuition, to be 
Moses the great law-giver and Elijah the prophet who 
had ascended a thousand years before in a chariot of 
fire. We were awe-struck, amazed. I spoke at 
length : ' Master, let us make here three tabernacles; 
one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elias.' I 
knew not what I said. There was no answer. Then 
came the luminous cloud, the Shekinah which long 
centuries before had disappeared from above the 
mercy-seat ; and as it folded us in we were afraid. 
And there came a voice out of the most excellent 
glory, ' This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him.' We 
had fallen upon our faces; the Master touched us, we 
arose and looked about us. The glory had faded, 
the celestial visitants were gone and Jesus stood 
alone. The years have passed but that scene is fresh 
in memory, as if it had been but yesterday. This is 
no fable. We are under no delusion. We saw this 
foregleam of the great apocalypse when he shall be 
King over all and blessed forever. We heard the 
voice from heaven. How can our faith trembly? We 
believe in his power. We believe in his coming. 
We shall see him in his glory in the great day." 

Here is the key to the Transfiguration. It had a 
double purpose : 



Io6 IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 



I. It was intended to strengthen Christ for his supreme 
trial. He was ever mindful of the redemptive work 
which he came to accomplish. He lived under the 
shadow of the cross. And he was of like passions 
with ourselves ; he dreaded death. The sun scorched 
him, the cold chilled him. His keen sensibilities 
were hurt by the abandonment of his friends. He 
trembled in apprehension of the awful pain of the 
cross. It was this that moved him to say, when the 
purple draught was put to his lips in Gethsemane, 
" O, my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass 
from me ! " He knew the anguish ; he felt aforetime 
the piercing of the nails, the fever and the heart- 
break. He needed strengthening and the Father 
was mindful of his need. Not for an instant was 
Jesus left alone. The Father himself was ever near, 
angels were sent to minister to him, and now the two 
mighty ones, Moses and Elias, representatives of the 
Old Economy of Law and Prophecy, were come to 
encourage him. 

The subject of their conversation with him was 
the " decease which he was to accomplish at Jerusa- 
lem." At this juncture all heaven was interested in 
that event, which, as it was the culmination of all the 
prophecy and all the symbolic ceremonialism of the 
Old Economy, was to be thenceforth the centre of 
universal history. For that great struggle on Golgo- 
tha they had come to cheer the divine knight-errant, 
to bind the girdle of omnipotent patience about his 
loins. It is not difficult to surmise the substance of 
what they would say to him. (i) No doubt reference 
was made to the eternal decree respecting the great 
sacrifice. Did they put him in remembrance of the 
council of the ineffable Trinity in which was con- 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 107 

sidered the desperate need of the human race, when 
the question was asked, " Whom shall we send to 
answer this cry for help and who will go for us ? " 
and when he himself, the only begotten of the 
Father, had answered, " Here am I, send me " ? Did 
Elias put him in remembrance of the unbroken line 
of prophecy running from the protevangel in par- 
adise to the midnight call of Malachi, respecting 
himself as the Lamb of God slain from the founda- 
tion of the world? Did Moses remind him of the 
significance of all the rites and symbols of the 
ceremonial law ; the paschal lamb, the turtle dove, 
the blood upon the brazen altar, the blood upon the 
posts and curtain of the tabernacle, the blood upon 
the mercy-seat, the blood everywhere ? This was 
indeed the ultimate event, the great consummation 
for which the whole creation had been travailing and 
groaning together until now. (2) No doubt refer- 
ence was also made in this conference to the fact that 
the sacrifice of Jesus was the forlorn hope of man. 
By the shedding of the blood of Jesus deliverance 
must come, if at all. There was none other name ; 
there was none other way. The voice of the great mul- 
titude, who were all under the doom and bondage of 
sin, would appeal to him with infinite pathos. If his 
flesh shrank from the awful ordeal, his spirit would 
grow resolute in view of the tremendous issues at 
stake. It is said of the good King Theodoric that, as 
he sat in his palace he saw in the vision the famish- 
ing people of Orleans, which was then besieged by 
the Huns ; he saw them stretching out their hands to 
him, saw their gaunt faces, heard their voices, men, 
women, little children, all calling to him, " Thou, or 
we die!" So under the stimulation of this confer- 



Io8 IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 



ence with Moses and Elias, the great knight-errant 
may have heard the world appealing, "Thou, or we 
die ! " (3) And then, too, the glorious issue was can- 
vassed. It had been prophesied of Messias "When he 
should give his soul an offering for sin, he shall see 
his seed, he shall prolong his days and the pleasure 
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." To the Lord 
now entering upon his mediatorial anguish the 
gates of heaven appeared wide open and thronged 
by the great multitude who, by the power of his 
atoning blood, should enter in. Ten thousand times 
ten thousand and thousands of thousands all breaking 
into song, as they crossed the threshold, "Worthy is 
the lamb that was slain, who hath redeemed us out 
of every nation and kindred and tribe ; and made 
us to be kings and priests unto God 1 " Was it so 
wonderful that his face was changed while he gazed 
upon this triumph ? Nay ; is there not something 
like this in the experience of the humblest wor- 
shipper? Have you not seen the wrinkles vanish 
from the face of an old father in Israel whose dim 
eyes were lifted toward the throne ? There is a 
transfigurative power in holy contemplation. As 
Jesus saw of the fruit of the travail of his soul he was 
satisfied. The light within, the light of a pure heart 
and conscience and of an unspeakable peace, shining 
outwardly, enveloped him untii he was indeed clothed 
with light as with a garment. Thus was he prepared 
for the great sacrifice. He went down from the 
mountain ready to be offered and set his face stead- 
fastly toward the cross. 

II. This vision in the Mount of Transfiguration was 
intended also to prepare the disciples for the grievous trials 
that awaited them. A tremendous pressure was to be 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. IO9 



put upon their faith. The Christ, in whose Messiah- 
ship they now professed to believe, was to be exposed 
to shame and spitting. They were to see him clothed 
in ribald purple in the judgment hall and scourged 
and smitten in the face. They were to see him led 
forth wearing a crown of thorns and bearing upon 
his shoulders a shameful cross. Would they then be 
able to believe in his Messiahship ? Or would it 
appear that the power of evil had overwhelmed him ? 
To this very end they beheld this foregleam of his 
ultimate glory. And it occurred at the very moment 
when they most needed it. The sun went down 
yesterday in a very blaze of splendor ; the day, as 
you remember, was drearily overcast, but the clouds 
cleared away as evening came, and O, the field of 
cloth of gold ! The glassy sea ! The archipelago 
of rubies and sapphires ! The pearly gates rolled 
backward, then the splendor faded. Slowly the gates 
closed, the shadows fell and the gloom of night came 
on. So after the long ministry of Jesus came this sun- 
burst of regal splendor and then the anguish of the 
cross. But in the midnight of that awful experience 
when the disciples, huddled in the upper chamber, 
knew that Jesus yonder on Golgotha was dying on 
the cross, there were those among them who remem- 
bered the Mount of Transfiguration. They could not 
but believe in his power. Had they not beheld it in 
the mountain ? It was no fable. It was no fond 
dream. They had seen. him with heaven's refulgence 
all about him. They had heard the voice out of the 
excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son ! " 

i„ We may arrive at a conviction respecting the 
power of Christ by the logical method. That is, we 
may satisfy ourselves that no one could work his 



no 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 



miracles or utter such discourses as fell from his lips ; 
that no one could live his life and exhibit to the 
world so splendid an illustration of spotless character, 
unless he were indeed the very Son of God. It was 
by this process that the council of Nicea, which was 
called in the year 312 by the Emperor Constantine, 
was able to determine the great Christological con- 
troversy. All manner of heresies had arisen in the 
church as to the person of Christ. For the adjust- 
ment of the controversy delegates were sent from all 
Christendom, and among them came two from Alex- 
andria in Egypt, who proved to be the most con- 
spicuous figures in the council : the one was Arius, 
the arch-heretic and father of Arianism, known as 
Unitarianism in later days ; the other was Athanasius, 
a mere stripling of twenty-five years, who was the 
defendant of orthodoxy and the formulator of the 
creed known by his name, which has ever since served 
as the Christological symbol of the Church of God. 
In that famous council the question of the divine 
power of Jesus was discussed pro and con, and it was 
formally determined that Jesus was very God of very 
God no less than very man of very man. We 
may thoughtfully arrive by a similar process at a like 
conclusion. 

2. But experience is a better teacher than reason. 
They know the power of Jesus who have felt it. I 
go down to the sea shore with a scientific friend, 
who carries with him his marine tables and measur- 
ing lines, and as we stand together there in sight and 
hearing of the majestic deep, he speaks of chemical 
analysis and great measurements, of miles and 
fathoms, until I cry, "Be still!" I feel all this; 
the roar of the ocean is in my soul, my heart 



IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. Ill 



broadens and expands. I feel its majesty. I know it 
in my inmost nature. So is it with one who has been 
under the mighty touch of the only begotten Son of 
God. His logic is not that of the schools but rather 
that of the blind man, who, having been healed of his 
infirmity, replied to the carping Scribes and Phari- 
sees, " I know not who this man Jesus is ; but he 
came and touched my poor eyes and whereas I was 
blind now I see." Did you ever experience the 
power of Christ, my friend ? Have you heard his 
voice ? Oh ! hear him but once. Let him lay his 
cunning finger upon your blindness for but an instant 
and never more will you doubt his power. 

3. Both the logical method and the experimental 
method receive their confirmation in the voice of God. 
The word out of the most excellent glory was not for 
the Chosen Three only. We, also, may go up, into 
the mount of vision. We, also, may hear the voice 
saying, " This is my beloved Son." We are all too 
common-place ; too willing to live down in the mists 
of the valley. The mount of vision calls us. We 
may dream dreams and see visions, if we will. We 
may hear heavenly voices, if we will. We may 
breathe the mountain air with God, if we will. 

But the rhapsody — it enheartens, uplifts, inspires, 
but passes. " Let us build here three tabenacles," 
said Peter ; but he wist not what he said. We can 
not dwell forever in sentimental and tearful contem- 
plation. Life has its dreams and visions but they do 
not constitute it. We must needs go down out of the 
mountain. At the foot of Hermon was the demoniac 
boy foaming at the lips. The sin-stricken world was 
crying for help. The palm-fronds of far-away Patmos 
were beckoning to John. The prison-doors at 



112 IN THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. 



Babylon were rolling back for Peter. The headsman 
stood with flashing sword calling to James, " Come, I 
await thee." Blessed be God for the hours of vision. 
But their value is in preparing us for the sterner 
tasks and responsibilities of life. 

It was not long after the Transfiguration that the 
chosen three were assembled with their fellow dis- 
ciples on the slopes of Olivet. All stood with up- 
turned faces gazing after their ascended Lord. A 
cloud had received him out of their sight and lo ! two 
shining ones stood beside them — were they Moses and 
Elias come again ? — who said, "Why stand ye gazing 
into heaven ? He shall so come again as ye have seen 
him go." Thus, they, who believed in his power, 
were henceforth to believe in his appearing. He 
shall so come. Maranatha ! The Lord cometh ! 
And when we behold him again he will be clothed 
with a transcendent glory of which that in the mount 
of vision was but the faintest foregleam. And, 
blessed be his name, when he cometh we shall be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is. His triumph will 
be our triumph and we shall sit together with him in J 
his throne. Wherefore, beloved, be ye steadfast, un- 
movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord ; 
forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain 
in the Lord. 



THE INITIATION OF PETER INTO THE 
MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 

" For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known 
unto you the power and coming' of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour 
and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent 
glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this 
voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the 
holy mount."— II. Pet. i. 16-18. 

It was forty years since Peter had witnessed the 
Transfiguration of Christ. But that event, with its 
accessories, had made a lasting impression upon him. 
The cloud, the face of Jesus resplendent " as the sun 
shineth in his strength," and the voice speaking out 
of "the most excellent glory," all these were as fresh 
in his remembrance as if they had happened but 
yesterday. In the meantime Peter had travelled 
much, had seen the world and mingled with men, but 
no occasion had come for changing his mind as to 
the profound importance of the things which hap- 
pened on that eventful day. 

It seemed to Peter as if that occurrence had been 
really the beginning of his higher life. He was a 
mere novice before that ; now he was an initiate. 
That is, indeed, the meaning of the word here 
rendered *' eye-witness." It is a technical word and 
has specific reference to the initiation of novices into 
the mysteries of pagan faiths. All the ancient re- 
ligions had their exoteric and esoteric aspects ; one 
side for the people, another for the chosen few. 

(us) 



114 PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 



There were the mysteries of Isis ; and the mysteries 
of Eleusis, which were revealed in the depths of the 
forest or in subterranean chambers amid mystic rites 
and ceremonies and under inviolable oaths. " Happy 
is the man," sings Pindar, "who beholds the mys- 
teries below the resounding earth." In the religion 
of Christ there are indeed no secrets from which the 
humblest are shut out. The saving truths are plain 
and simple ; "An highway shall be there, and a way, 
and it shall be called ' The way of holiness ' ; and the 
wayfaring man though a fool shall not err therein." 
Yet simplicity itself is a path to sublimity and pro- 
fundity. There is no end to the joyous researches 
of him who is disposed to follow out the simple 
truths of the gospel to their celestial conclusions. 
Oh, the riches of this wisdom ! Happy is the man 
that goeth up into the Mount of Transfiguration to 
learn the mysteries of the gospel of Christ. 

I. At the outset is the Mystery of the God-man. 
Of this it is written, " Great is the mystery of godli- 
ness, God manifest in the flesh ; the angels desire 
to look into it." The Ark of the Covenant, being of 
wood overlaid with gold, was symbolical of the two- 
fold nature of Christ. On the golden cover of that 
Ark were two Cherubim with overshadowing wings 
and eyes cast down, of whom it is written "The 
angels desire to look into it." 

How shall it be possible for a finite mind to grasp 
this glorious truth ? If we were to stand under the 
open heavens at noon and see the sun diminishing in 
splendor more and more, shrivelling in its dimensions, 
descending slowly from its place, until at length 
it fell before our feet, so that we, stooping to take it 
in our hands, should find only a glow-worm there, 



PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. I 15 

we should think it an unspeakable wonder. Yet that 
would be incomparable with the thing that happened 
when God came down, clothed himself in flesh and 
dwelt among us. This is indeed a mystery. It is 
high ; we cannot attain unto it. We place it among 
the innumerable truths—and they are found in nature 
as well as in grace — which must be apprehended by 
faith. 

It was only a few days before the Transfiguration 
that Peter had witnessed his good confession, saying, 
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
To those brave words the Lord had made immediate 
answer, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for flesh 
and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven hath revealed it unto thee." 
The mystery of the God-man is at the very basis of 
our religion. No question is more important than 
this, "What think ye of Jesus ?" It is an old saying, 
''The secret of Messiah is the secret of man." We 
cannot arrive at a solution of the problem by the 
ordinary processes of reason ; we shall find ourselves 
baffled if we thus attempt it. But God is ready, by 
his Spirit, to help any man who desires to know the 
truth. All spiritual truth is apprehended by faith 
and faith is the gift of God. 

II. Another of the mysteries into which Peter was 
initiated on the Mount of Transfiguration was the 
Heart of the Father. The world knows there is a 
God, but it wants to know what are his nature and 
attributes ? and above all, what is his attitude to- 
ward us? In vain do we appeal to nature ; the earth 
rumbles under our feet, the skies are lurid and the 
air is vibrant with the voice of thunder ; there are 
blazing suns and scorching winds, fevers and pesti- 



Il6 PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 



lences. In vain do we appeal to history ; it is the 
story of five thousand yearsof wars and rumors of wars, 
of killing times and cursing times, of Neros and 
Hildebrands and Timours wading in blood, of axe and 
fagot, of shame and poverty and suffering, of uni- 
versal struggle for survival of the fittest, of mobs and 
anarchy and people eating one another up. If we are 
ever to know God, he must speak of himself; he 
must uncover his own heart and tell us in some 
irrefutable manner that he loves us. And this he has 
done in the saying which is written, " God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son." So 
loved ! 

We say that God has neither body, parts nor 
passions. We say that God cannot suffer. But 
could he send forth his only begotten and well- 
beloved Son to such a fate without the rending of his 
heart? In those words " He so loved " there is an 
intimation of something beyond all possibility of 
human grief. The fathers who gave their sons for the 
defence of the Union in our Civil War will find it 
hard to believe that God could give his only begotten 
and well-beloved to the sure death of Golgotha with 
a painless complacency. For this Jesus was his only 
Son, his only begotten and well-beloved, fairer than 
the children of men. 

In a time of famine in Germany a certain 
family was reduced to the last extremity of 
want. A neighboring baron had long desired to 
adopt one of the children. The father and mother 
concluded that there was no other method of keeping 
the wolf from the door. At night, when the children 
were asleep in their beds, they climbed the stairs to 
determine which one should be given up. They 



PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 117 

looked into the face of their eldest ; a noble boy 
smiling in his sleep and seeing visions and dreaming 
dreams of the coming days ; they could not give him 
up. Then they turned to the fair-haired lad with his 
mother's eyes, merry and mischievous, the life of the 
household ; they could not give him. Then to the 
bed where their crippled girl was sleeping, the marks 
of pain wrinkling her little face ; they could not give 
her. And then to the cradle where the baby was, 
the last born, the dimpled cheek that had rested on 
its mother's breast ; they could not give the baby. 
So, looking into each other's faces across the crib, 
they softly said, " Let us rather die together." O, 
blessed mother love and father love ! But God for 
our sake gave his only Son. This is the supreme and 
conclusive revelation of his love. This is the mystery 
of the Heart of God. 

So it is written, " God commendeth his love to- 
ward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died 
for us." And again, " In this was manifest the love 
of God toward us, because that he sent his only be- 
gotten Son to the world that we might live through 
him." And thus it came about that we are able to 
comprehend and "to know with all saints, what is 
the length and breadth and depth and height of the 
love that passeth knowledge ! " 

III. Still another of the mysteries that came to 
Peter that day was the Fountain of truth. The 
earliest of the patriarchs said : "Surely there is a vein 
for the silver and a place for the gold where they fine it. 
Iron is taken out of the earth and brass is molten out of 
the stone. He setteth an end to darkness and searcheth 
out to the furthest bound the stones of thick darkness and 
of the shadow of death. But where shall wisdom be 



Il8 PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 

found and where is the place^ of understanding ? Man 
knoweth not the price thereof j neither is it found in the 
land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me : and 
the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be valued with 
the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. 
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls : for the 
price of wisdom is above rubies. Whence then cometh 
wisdom ? and where is the place of understanding ? Seeing 
it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the 
fowls of the air." The answer to that query is in the 
word that was uttered from the most excellent glory : 
"This is my beloved Son, hear ye him " ; which finds 
an echo in the words of Jesus, "I am the truth." 

All spiritual truth rests upon three postulates and 
these three postulates form the sum and substance of 
the teaching of Christ. First — God. He taught that 
God is spirit and that when we pray we should say, 
"Our Father who art in heaven." Second — The soul. 
He taught its immortality and responsibility when he 
propounded that insoluble problem ; "What shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul ? " Third — The reconciliation of the soul 
with God. He taught that this could only be effect- 
ed by the decease which he was to accomplish in be- 
half of men. On the day when he conversed with 
Moses and Elias respecting this decease, each of them 
could recall experiences in their earthly life which was 
inexplicable without it. Moses might look back over 
the lapse of fifteen hundred years to the time when 
he was commanded to raise a serpent upon a pole in 
the wilderness for the healing of those who had been 
bitten by the fiery serpents and to say, " He that 
looketh shall live." He must have known all along 



PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 119 

how that was but an object lesson and symbolic 
prophecy of some great saving power, and now all 
was explained in this, " As Moses lifted up the ser- 
pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man 
be lifted up, in suffering and death, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish but have everlast- 
ing life." Elias, also, could look back over the lapse 
of nine hundred years to the great controversy on 
Carmel when the blood of the sacrifice streamed over 
the sides of Jehovah's altar ; and when he made his 
calm prayer, " O God, hear and answer by fire ; that 
the people may know that thou art God ! " and 
when the fire fell from heaven and consumed the sac- 
rifice ; blood and fire ; again a prophetic object lesson 
as to some tremendous event. All is clear as sunlight 
now. This Jesus is the Lamb slain from the founda- 
tion of the world — an whole burnt offering. His life 
consumed in our behalf by the fire of retribution 
which had gone out against us. So God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto himself. 

IV. And there was still another mystery into 
which Peter was initiated on that momentous day, to 
wit, the two worlds — the world visible and the world 
invisible. How near together they were on the mount 
of vision. Here are three men still living the earthly 
life ; yonder are two who, for some hundred of years, 
had been in glory ; and Christ stands upon the border 
line between them ! 

We were taught as children to sing of heaven as a 
"happy land, far, far away." But heaven is not far 
away. From the slopes of Hermon to the golden 
gates is less than a single footstep, less than a mo- 
ment of time. " No oceans roll between, no immeas- 
urable firmaments." Indeed there is nothing between 



120 PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 

but a gossamer veil which the touch of a rude finger 
may withdraw or the sting of an insect rend. The 
souls of the departed are nearer than we think. Is 
" Spiritualism " true then? Nay. Spiritualism, so 
called, is the reductio ad absurdum of a glorious truth. 
We must believe that the souls of the departed are in 
better business than tapping tables and hiding away 
in pine cabinets and talking transcendental nonsense. 
But behind this folly, as behind all other falsehoods, 
there is somewhat of truth. Is it not written, "Are 
they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister 
unto them which are heirs of salvation " ? It is true 
we are not conscious of the time of their approach ; 
and, furthermore, there is no medium of communica- 
tion between us. It is apparently not God's pleasure 
that we should communicate with them. But we 
have abundant reason to believe that they are per- 
mitted to minister to us and at any moment they 
may not be far from us. 

What is heaven ? We speak sometimes as if we 
knew, but all our information is based upon de- 
scriptions given us in Holy Writ ; gates of pearl and 
golden streets and glassy seas and songs and golden 
harps. In these, however, we have but the best effort 
of God to describe to finite beings the glory of an 
infinite celestial thing. How could he picture heaven 
to us ? Try to describe a printing press or a philo- 
sophic truth to an untutored savage. Or try to 
describe Murillo's picture of the Immaculate Con- 
ception to a lad in pinafores. I stood once at the 
Giant's Causeway holding the hand of a friend who 
had been blind from his birth. He could hear the 
roll of the mighty deep and the scream of the sea- 
gulls, but, as he said, it was impossible for him to 



PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 121 

conceive the scene ; the great basaltic formations, 
the ocean rolling in against the cliffs a hundred feet 
below and out again in masses of fleecy foam, the 
vast stretch of waters, the blue canopy above. " But 
O," he said, " I feel the sublimity of it!" So we, 
with all our dreaming and wondering, fall short of 
any just conception of the glory of the unseen world. 
A great surprise awaits us, for the half has never been 
told. But meanwhile it is a joy to realize that its 
splendors are everywhere about us. 

The shadows fell on Hermon and grew deeper as 
the night wore on. It was toward the early twilight 
when the Chosen Three with Jesus went down the 
mountain path. They spoke in low voices, looked 
upward at the fading stars — and every star must 
have seemed like a new promise of God — and looked 
through the interstellar spaces with a new wonder 
and a new and more glorious faith. No night in 
heaven ; no farewells ; no breaking up of life's sweet 
chapters with, "Arise, let us go hence." At the foot 
of the mountain the paths of these men diverged ; one 
went to lonely Patmos in the Aegean Sea ; another 
passed out through the Damascus gate of Jerusalem 
following the headsman with a gleaming axe ; and 
the third turned his steps toward Babylon where he 
was to spend his last years in a prison cell. But they 
would never forget. They had been initiated into 
the mysteries ; the vision would linger and the echoes 
of the heavenly voice would abide with them. We 
too would go down from the mountain to-day to 
meet the responsibilities of life, but is not heaven 
nearer than it was and do not yokes and crosses seem 
lighter now ? One of these days there will be a clos- 
ing of the eyes, a fluttering breath and we shall be 



122 PETER AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH. 

there ! The faces that we loved are fading, the voices 
that say farewell grow fainter and fainter ; but faces 
that we lost awhile are coming into clearer view and 
hands that we had longed to clasp are beckoning. 
We are there ! The cloud, the golden mist, is all 
around us ; the face " as the sun shineth in his 
strength " is over us ; and the voice is speaking. 
"This is my beloved Son." Then the eternal song. 
We are bowed before his feet, the joy of heaven is in 
our hearts, and in our voices "Thou art worthy to 
receive honor, and glory, and power, and dominion 
for ever and ever ; for thou wast slain and hast 
redeemed us and made us to be kings and priests 
unto God ! " 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



A Christmas Heditation. 

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Csesar 
Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing- was first 
made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, 
every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out 
of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is 
called Bethlehem ; (because he was of the house and lineage of David :) 
to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And 
so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she 
should be delivered. And she brought forth her first born son, and 
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger ; because 
there was no room for them in the inn." — Luke ii. 1-7. 

The December winds were sweeping across the 
hills when Joseph and Mary set out upon this journey. 
The distance was about eighty miles. The roads, at 
all times difficult, were now almost impassable. 
Yonder the travellers go — a sturdy peasant, staff in 
hand, leading by the bridle a panniered mule whereon 
sits the muffled figure of a woman. There were 
wonderful scenes along the way. At the ford of the 
Kishon they heard again the song of Deborah : "The 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The 
river of Kishon swept them away ; that ancient river, 
the river Kishon. O, my soul, thou hast trodden down 
strength." And they passed under the shadow of 
Gilboa, where the shields of the mighty were wildly 
cast away and where David uttered his lament for 
Saul and Jonathan — "They were lovely and pleasant 
in their lives and in their death they were not 
divided ! They were swifter than eagles ; stronger 
than lions. How are the mighty fallen, and the 

(123) 



124 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



weapons of war perished ! " Still further on they 
came to the heights of Jezreel, where, if it were at 
evening, they saw the glimmer of the lamps of 
Gideon's three hundred, and listened to the song that 
was at once a battle paean and a prophecy : "Then 
shall be broken the staff of the oppressor as in the 
day of Midian ; for every battle of the warrior is 
with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, 
but this shall be with fuel of fire ; for unto us a child 
is born, unto us a son is given ; his name shall be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The 
Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace ! " It was 
probably the fourth day when they came in sight of 
Bethlehem, and passed the fields where Ruth had fol- 
lowed after the reapers and the pastures where David 
had watched his flocks. Here at the gate was the well 
for which the exiled king had longed when he was 
hunted like a partridge among the mountains, saying, 
" O for a drink of the water of the well beside the 
gate of Bethlehem ! " They entered and betook 
themselves to the inn. But there being no room for 
them — so many of their countrymen having come to 
Bethlehem upon a like errand with themselves— 
they found shelter in a stable near by. There in 
the night the great mystery of life was enacted. The 
Prince was born, not in a chamber hung with purple 
tapestries, but in a humble stall. There was no ring- 
ing of bells, no crying of heralds to welcome Emman- 
uel : the fierce winds howled without and earth was 
all unconscious of the coming of the Mighty One. 

It was meet that this event should occur just then. 
The taxing under Cyrenius marked the fulness of 
time. It had been prophesied that " the sceptre 
should not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



between his feet, until Shiloh come." The enrol- 
ment of Israel under the Roman authority gave token 
of the final departure of all national power from Israel. 
The throne of David trembled, the scepter fell ; then 
Shiloh came. 

The taxing here referred to — literally an enrolment 
or census — has occasioned much controversy. It has 
been said that Luke was all at sea in his chronology ; 
that a census of this character was indeed taken under 
Cyrenius, but that he was governor of the province 
ten years after the birth of Jesus. It has been 
shown, however, by comparison with secular annals, 
that Cyrenius was twice governor ; and that it was 
during his first administration that he began the tak- 
ing of this census, which was interrupted by the op- 
position of the Jews. Thus Scripture vindicates 
itself. The Bible is a true book. " The heavens 
shall be rolled together like a scroll and the earth 
shall be consumed with fervent heat ; but the word 
of the Lord endureth forever." The opposition of 
hostile critics has merely served to confirm it. 

All things in the divine economy come to pass in 
the fulness of time. The first child that ever was born 
on earth was welcomed with the cry, " I have gotten 
a man from the Lord ! " A better rendering of these 
words seems to be, " I have gotten a man, Jehovah ! " 
It is probable that the mother supposed her child 
to be that " seed of woman " of whom it had been 
prophesied that he should bruise the serpent's head. 
She thought that already the Christ was come for the 
deliverance of the race from sin. Alas ! like many a 
fond mother she was to see the utter disappoint- 
ment of her hope. There must be four thousand 
years of waiting, of sin and suffering ; a great proces- 



is6 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



sion of souls marching through the ages lock-step, 
quick-step, into the unbroken night. Men's hearts 
were to fail them ; and through weary centuries they 
would cry, " How long, O Lord, how long ! " But 
God is not slack concerning his promises. 

" Deep in unfathomable mines of never failing skill 
He treasures up his bright designs, and works his wonders 
still." 

The striking of the hour was marked by this en- 
rolment of Cyrenius. All prophecy of the Christ 
came to its fulfilment just then. The Old Testament 
is a glowing record of Messianic prophecy. We open 
its pages at the protevangel and mark the face of the 
Christ growing brighter and brighter as we pass on ; 
now the dim figure of "the seed of woman 1 '; now the 
royal Son of David; a little later we mark his visage 
so marred more than any man's, defiled with shame 
and spitting ; then he sits upon a throne high and 
lifted up, the Ancient of Days ; and in the final fore- 
gleam of Malachi he is the Sun of Righteousness with 
healing in his beams. At this last page we pause 
wondering and afraid. Dare we turn the leaf ? Will 
an awful disappoinment meet us ? Can it be that 
through all the centuries we have comforted our hearts 
with a fallacious hope ? With fear and trembling we 
turn the last leaf, and, lo ! Emmanuel, God with us ! 

The timeliness of the birth of Jesus is emphasized 
by three significant facts : 

I. The world had reached its climacteric of sin. It is 
sometimes the case that a disease cannot be success- 
fully treated until it has "come to<a head." It is a 
curious commentary on the utter insufficiency of 
human culture that the world's sin came to its full 
development in what is called the Golden Age. 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 127 

At Rome in this Golden Age of Augustus Caesar 
the court and people were steeped in luxury and 
licentiousness. Virgil was writing his Eclogues ; 
Horace was singing his Odes ; Livy was writing his 
Annals. What feasts there were ! What glorious 
sports in the amphitheatre ! At this time Caesar 
gave an exhibition in which six hundred gladiators 
fought hand to hand. And Pompey, not to be out- 
done, brought five hundred lions into the arena. The 
women counted their divorces by rings upon their fin- 
gers. There were fashionable dames of the Empire 
who asked for decrees of defamation, that they might 
mount the stage and exhibit themselves in lascivious 
dances in honor of the gods. If one would gain a 
just conception of the corruptness of those times, let 
him read the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans. There is nowhere else in all literature such 
an indictment against the children of men. 

•In Greece, Zeuxis and Appelles had frescoed the 
walls of homes and palaces with infinite skill ; and 
Phidias and Praxiteles had carved statues of such 
marvellous beauty as to challenge the emulation of 
later art. Philosophy had done its best. The very 
summit of earthly culture had been reached. The 
result may be witnessed in the frescoes and inscrip- 
tions taken from the ruins of Pompeii in which were 
presented such exhibitions of sin and shame as may 
not even be mentioned in these days. When Vesu- 
vius vomited forth her. suffocating clouds of scoria 
and ashes upon that city, it was but the just expres- 
sion of the unspeakable wrath of God. 

The disease of the race had reached its culmina- 
tion now. There was no soundness in the body, but 
from head to foot all was wounds and bruises and 



128 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



putrefying sores. The time had come for the calling 
in of the Great Physician. If man's extremity is 
God's opportunity, then let him make no more tarry- 
ing. The whole world is groaning and travailing 
for him. 

II. The world had reached its consummation of want. 
It had been predicted that when the Messiah should 
come he would be "the desire of all nations" ; to that 
end there must be a complete exposure of the weak- 
ness of all other plans of deliverance. This was 
true at the time of the advent of Christ. The old 
religions were practically dead ; they had lost all 
power to help or to satisfy the souls of men. 

The religion of the Jews had come to be a system 
of mere form and ceremony. The temple itself was 
a mere whited sepulchre, fair without but within full 
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The relig- 
ious teachers wore broad phylacteries and made long 
prayers on the corners of the streets ; but they stood 
in the doorway of heaven, neither entering in them- 
selves nor suffering others to enter in. 

The gods of Rome were impotent. Their altars 
were forsaken. The people had lost all confidence in 
them. The priests, as they passed each other in the 
sanctuaries, smiled in each others faces at the thought 
of the impositions which they were wont to practice. 

The philosophers of Greece could not help or re- 
deem men. By the banks of the Ilyssus flourished 
the Academy and the Painted-Porch. Platonism was 
dreaming of the possibility of spiritual things ; Stoi- 
cism hardening men to endure ill silently ; and Epicu- 
reanism leading its followers in pursuit of the present 
good. Of these various forms of philosophy Gibbon 
says, "All the prevailing systems were by the wise 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 



I29 



regarded as equally false, by statesmen as equally 
necessary, and by the people as equally true." The 
skepticism of the time found a voice in the bitter word 
that fell from the lips of Pilate, " What is truth ?" 

Was there then no eye to pity and no arm to save ? 
Shall the people stretch out their hands in vain for 
help forever ? Is God unmindful of their need ? 
Nay. This is the hour for which the centuries have 
waited. The great Deliverer comes. On the Judean 
hills the angels tell the story in their exultant song : 
" To you is born this day in the city of David, a 
Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in 
the highest, peace on earth, good will to men." 

III. The fulness of time of the advent of the 
Messiah is still further marked by the fact that the 
nations had completed their contribution to this great event. 
The titulum which was hanged on the neck of Jesus, 
when he bore His cross to Calvary, was written in 
three languages — Hebrew, Latin and Greek. At that 
period these were the tongues spoken by the three 
great nations of the earth. 

The Jews were a chosen people. They had been 
chosen to a specific task, namely, to perpetuate the 
worship of the one true God and to keep the oracles 
with their Messianic prophecies and pass them down 
along the coming ages. It was appropriate that now 
their sovereignty as a distinct people should pass from 
them, for they had finished their work. 

The Greeks contributed their part in the formula- 
tion of a language which should serve as a most val- 
uable vehicle for the expression of religious truth. 
It is no accident that the New Testament was written 
in Greek. The philosophic culture of that nation 
had necessitated the forming of a language which 



130 THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 

above all others is adapted to the utterance of 
spiritual things. 

And Rome had conquered the world. The decree 
of Cyrenius calling for a universal enrolment was an 
announcement of this fact. All nations had passed 
under the yoke of the Great Empire. The Caesars 
had built roads in all directions for the transporting 
of their legions to the remotest colonies. These 
roads were to serve for the propagation of the gospel 
of Christ. The king's heart is indeed in the hand of 
the Lord as the rivers of water. Could there be a 
more convincing proof of the divine wisdom than this, 
that he should so have subsidized the Caesars in 
preparation for the coming of the Prince and for the 
spreading of the gospel of peace, that the highways 
which they had built for their victorious armies 
should be paths for those whose feet are beautiful, 
because they bring glad tidings of salvation ? 

Thus all things were ready. When the clock 
struck in heaven it was Caesar Augustus that gave 
the signal here below. Then the last of the prophets 
uttered his voice, " Prepare ye, prepare ye, the way 
of the coming of God ; for there cometh one whose 
shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. Behold 
the Lamb of God ! " All prophecy is closed, now 
history begins ; the Son of God is here, the joy of 
the advent season is ours. 

" When Christ was born of Mary free 
In Bethlehem that fair citie, 
Angels sang with mirth and glee, 
' In Excelsis Gloria.'" 

Blessed be God for his unspeakable gift. We need 
him. Souls desire him as the hart panteth after the 



THE TAXING UNDER CYRENIUS. 131 

water brooks. He came to the world in the fulness 
of time. He comes at this advent season to us. To- 
day may be for some soul here the fulness of time. 
Let us open the gates and admit him, that this Christ 
may be our Christ forever ; that living with him and 
dying with him, we may also be glorified together 
with him. 



THE NEW YEAR. 



" I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt 
out of the house of bondage."— Ex. xx. 2. 

The children of Israel would probably have been 
unable to tell how they came to be in abject bondage. 
It was not a sudden thing. They were not pounced 
upon by the Egyptians and carried away in chains 
to the brick kilns, They had come into the land at 
the invitation of Pharaoh to better their condition. 
They had come with their baggage-wagons and 
driving their flocks and herds before them. They had 
settled in the rich pasture lands of Goshen and so 
lived happy and content for a while. Then Joseph, 
their royal patron, died, and in the reigns of succeed- 
ing Pharaohs their privileges were taken away one by 
one and their burdens increased. The pyramids 
must be built, the Israelites were forced into the 
service ; they accepted the situation because it 
seemed hopeless to contend against it. They were 
driven in gangs to the brick-yards where they toiled 
under task-masters who wielded whips of scorpions. 
They were required at length to make their tale of 
bricks without straw. Life had come to be a weari- 
ness. Their backs were sore and bleeding. The 
manhood was crushed out of them. All through the 
day they cried, " Would God it were night ! " and all 

(132) 



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133 



through the sleepless hours of the night they moaned, 
" Would God it were morning ! " 

Is not this an apologue of life ? We set out years 
ago with bright dreams and aspirations ; as we passed 
on, the world assumed a more serious aspect ; our 
tasks, our pleasures, our splendid ambitions, which 
had formerly beckoned us with smiles, now became 
our task-masters ; they took their scourges from 
behind their backs and lashed us. Now we are 
groaning under our bondage. We are slaves to the 
workshop, to social life, to Wall Street, to our am- 
bitions, to old habits and appetites. The fetters are 
riveted. God help us ! 

The past is our Egypt and the God-man of 
Nazareth is our deliverer. To the hall of Pharaoh 
came Moses demanding " Thus saith the Lord, Let 
my people go." The struggle was short, spirited, and 
conclusive in its results. It was night when the 
children of Israel went forth. One by one the lights 
in the homes of Egypt were quenched, but the lamps 
of the Hebrews burned on. The mothers were 
kneading dough, the fathers were packing their 
bundles ; the paschal lambs were slain, the house- 
holds gathered about the table, the men harnessed 
for their journey — girdles about their loins, sandals 
under feet, staves in hand. Up yonder on the lintel 
of the door was blood ; blood that spoke of deliver- 
ance ; the purchase price of a glorious liberty. The 
night wore on. It was midnight now when a wail of 
sorrow was heard. The lights in the palace were 
kindled ; lights in all the homes of the city ; weeping 
and wailing for the first born. It was the signal ! 
The children of Israel passed out through the blood- 
stained door-ways, along the dimly lighted streets, 



r 34 



THE NEW YEAR. 



through the great gates, into the broad highways — . 
men, women, children, more than two million souls. 
Out of Egypt they went with their faces toward 
the wilderness and toward the land flowing with 
milk and honey that lay beyond it. They looked 
backward ; the old homes were there, the graves 
of their fathers were there. Farewell, Egypt ! 
Farewell ! 

The past is our Egypt and Jesus leads us 
forth. 

I. A backward glance. It is the season for re- 
viewing the past. To forget is our Christian privi- 
lege — to " forget the things which are behind." But 
the old year can never wholly slip from our remem- 
brance. 

(i) Its joys. The Lord be praised for all the 
pleasures gone by. But the future holds brighter 
things in store for us. There are people who 
find a sad comfort in the remembrance of delights 
gone by. "A year ago to-day," they say, "we 
were sailing down the St. Lawrence among the 
Thousand Isles " ; or, u A year ago to-day we were 
among the orange groves in Florida." There is 
an oriental proverb, " The remembrances of past 
happiness are the wrinkles of the soul." To re- 
call the pleasant things gone by at the expense of 
gladsome hope and courage is indeed to cut the 
sinews of our strength. It was quaintly said by 
Thomas Fuller : " Memory is like a purse ; if it be 
overfilled all will drop out of it. Take heed lest the 
greediness of the appetite of thy memory shall spoil 
the digestion thereof." As the years come and go, 
the experiences of the past gain an illusory bright- 
ness through the glamour, and detract from the real 



THE NEW YEAR. 



135 



value of present joy. There is a genuine touch of 
nature in the poet's words : 

" I remember, I remember, the house where I was born, 
The little window where the sun came peeping in at morn ; 
He never came a wink too soon, nor brought too long a day, 
But now I often wish the night had borne my breath away." 

The Israelites, as they journeyed through the wilder- 
ness, were wont in like manner to recall, with fond 
remembrance, the flesh-pots of Egypt. O ! if we 
could only sit down again at the table in the humble 
home as we used to do when the good man came weary 
from the brick-yard and we partook of the mess of 
leeks and lentils. But could they have seen beyond 
the haze that gathered toward the north, lo, on 
yonder heights were the vineyards of Eschol. Yonder 
were grapes and pomegranates, and happy homes and 
fertile fields awaiting them. Cheer up, friend, there 
are brighter days ahead; the joys of the old year were 
only earnests of those that shall be. Press on ! In- 
stead of murmuring for the delights of the former 
time, reach forth toward the nobler pleasures which 
shall come to thee through faith in God. 

(2) Its sorrows. In the old year many a burden 
was put upon us. There were disappointed hopes, 
and adversities and bereavements. Some of the 
dear faces are gone. It is impossible not to remember 
them now. There is a wonderful pathos in the old 
song : 

" Oft in the stilly night 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
Fond memory brings the light 
Of other days around me : 
The smiles, the tears, 
Of bygone years, 



THE NEW YEAR. 



The words of love then spoken ; 

The eyes that shone, 

Now dimmed and gone, 
The cheerful hearts now broken ! 

" When I remember all 

The friends so linked together, 
I've seen around me fall 

Like leaves in wintry weather, 

I feel like one 

Who treads alone 
Some banquet hall deserted, 

Whose lights are fled, 

Whose garlands dead. 
And all but him departed ! " 

For all this there is comfort in the philosophy of 
Zeno, "It cannot be helped; let us bear it." But 
there is vastly more of comfort in the philosophy of 
Christ, l£ No affliction for the present seemeth to be 
joyous, but grievous : nevertheless, afterward it 
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto 
them that are exercised thereby." And this, "All 
things work together for good " — all things ; that is, 
the joys, the triumphs, the pains, the sorrows, the 
disappointments, all — " to them that love God." 

The children of Israel took out of Egypt with 
them the mummy of Joseph. No doubt many a man 
in the sad experiences of the wilderness journey 
came into the holy tent where that memorial was 
kept and bowed down under the hieroglyphics that 
were written upon the mummy case, and pleaded his 
case with tears : " O thou God of Joseph ! hast thou 
forgotten to be gracious ? Shall pain and trouble 
and hungering be our portion forever?" And was 
there no answer ? Aye ; the still voice that ever 
speaks to a pleading soul: "This journey brings 



THE NEW YEAR. 



137 



thee to the heights of Canaan. All things are for thy 
good. Thou shall enter in with bronzed face and 
sturdy limbs and eyes brightened with noble hopes 
and purposes ; a better man for thy thirst and 
hungering and weariness." So even in the re- 
membrance of our sorrows we may pluck up courage 
for coming days. 

(3) Its sins. A year ago we were making resolu- 
tions and, alas ! we have broken them. Day after 
day we found ourselves betrayed into the habits of 
our former life and bowed down at evening to pray, 
"Have mercy upon me, O God, for I have sinned." 
And now again we come to the border line of the 
years, and the old sins are following hard after us. 

So was it with the children of Israel when they 
came down to Pa-hahiroth and encamped by the sea. 
Some one heard afar off the rumbling of chariot 
wheels ; then another, shading his eyes, said, " I see 
the gleam of spear-points and waving banners ! " 
Then the cry was raised, " The hosts of Pharaoh ! 
they pursue us ! " Then the terror of weak women 
and children, a panic throughout the camp. "What 
shall we do ? We are entangled between the moun- 
tains and the sea ! " What could they do ? Nothing. 
And Moses said, " Stand still and see the salvation of 
your God ! " 

Is there nothing like this in our personal experi- 
ence ? Have the old things passed away ? Have we 
so rid ourselves of the Egyptians that they trouble 
us no more ? Alas ! the .chariots of the host of 
Pharaoh come clattering after us ; pride and world- 
liness, envies and jealousies, evil appetites and un- 
holy ambitions. Here they come driving furiously. 
What shall we do ? Stand still ! Stand still and see 



138 



THE NEW YEAR. 



the power of God. The blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ means not only the wiping out of penalty, but 
manumission. It is effective all the way from the 
gates of Egypt to the plains of Canaan. The grip of 
that blood should hold a man forever. We cannot 
deliver ourselves, but God is a great deliverer. Let 
us throw ourselves upon his omnipotence. By faith 
our weakness is made strength. O God of Almighty 
Grace, the earth is thine and the sea ; roll back the 
waves and drown our pursuing foes ! His help as- 
sures the paean of victory. " I will sing unto the 
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. Who is like 
unto thee, O God, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders ? Thou hast led forth the 
people whom thou hast redeemed." The promise 
that was given to Israel in their terror is ours, also, 
if we claim it, "As for the Egyptians ye shall see 
them no more forever." Our sins are gone if faith 
will have it so — dead as the charioteers whose bodies 
came floating to the shore of the sea. 

II. So much for the past. Now welcome the 
future. A forward glance. Vast stretches of wilder- 
ness, toils and dangers, hot suns and blazing sands, 
and the mountains beyond. 

Let us take with us into the coming year three 
words of power : 

(i) Character. It is written of these Israelites that 
they carried with them none of the leaven of Egypt. 
If any one partook of leaven during the great feast, 
from the first until the seventh day, he was cut off 
from Israel. It was the custom to go about the tents 
with a lighted lamp searching for leaven in every 
nook and cranny. Leaven was an emblem of the life 
of old Egypt, — the worship of Apis and Osiris. In 



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139 



the Scriptures it is ever a type of sin; so says Paul to 
the Corinthians, " Purge out the old leaven, for Christ 
is made a sacrifice for us forever. Let us keep the 
feast not with the old leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
truth." Let me exhort you as we cross this border 
line of time to put away the last remnant of sin ; to 
bring no leaven out of Egypt with you. Pass into 
the new year free from your bondage. Put off more 
and more the old man, and put on more and more the 
virtues of the new man Christ Jesus. By the holy 
passover of Calvary, by the memory of him who leads 
us forth out of bondage let us go unencumbered and 
undefiled into the coming year. 

(2) Kindness. In this word are embraced all the 
duties which we owe to our fellow-men. The word 
itself is most significant ; it is cognate with the word 
"kin." To be kind is to be " kinned " ; that is, to 
follow out the thought of our kinship with all. The 
Israelites went out of Egypt a surging mob ; on 
entering the wilderness they began their national 
life. Previously every man had lived for himself; 
now all were to live for the nation and each for his 
fellow-men. The beginning of Christianity is in a 
recognition of the solidarity of the race. We are 
bound together in Christ as the Elder Brother ; all 
a-kin in him. We enter through his mediatorship 
into a recognition of the brotherhood of man in the 
fatherhood of God. 

We hear much of "altruism " in these days. The 
word is new, but the thing itself is old as the gospel 
of Christ. Christianity is unselfishness. Its supreme 
expression is in two divine words : " Whatsoever ye 
would that others should do unto you, do ye even so 



140 



THE NEW YEAR. 



unto them," and " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me." 

The new year will offer countless opportunities of 
doing good. We shall be called upon to stretch 
forth the helpful hand, to speak the comforting word, 
to put the cup of cold water to thirsty lips. And in 
so doing we shall be realizing the very best of human 
life. For it is true, as old John Sterling wrote : 

" 'Tis worth the wise man's best of life, 
'Tis worth a thousand years of strife, 
If thou canst lessen, but by one, 
The countless ills beneath the sun." 

(3) Piety. Now abide these three ; character, 
kindness, piety, but the greatest of all is piety. For 
in the last reduction the chief end of man is to glorify 
God. Let us write his name large in the history of 
the coming year. Have we learned it ? Have we 
apprehended the full significance of it ? This is life 
eternal, to know God. And this is the sum of the 
Law and the Prophets, To love God and to love 
our fellow-men. 

And now I wish you all a happy New Year. We 
shall fall short unless we begin aright. To enter 
upon the future with the sins of the past would be 
like going down a crowded thoroughfare with a ball 
and chains upon one's ankle. Let us not so handi- 
cap our success in coming days. The cross is here 
and upon it the Christ is stretching out his hands 
ready to forgive. His blood cieanseth from all sin. 

The rabbis have a legend that on that Passover 
night, when the Israelites were awaiting a signal for 
their departure, there was in one of the Jewish homes 



THE NEW YEAR. 



141 



a sick girl, who asked her father repeatedly if the 
blood had been sprinkled on the lintel of the door. 
Not satisfied with his repeated assurances that the 
servant had properly attended to it, she begged him 
for her sake to go and see. He went outside the 
door and looked and no blood was there. He made 
haste to bring the basin with the hyssop branch and 
had just sprinkled the lintel when a shadow fell over 
him ; he looked upward and, lo ! the destroying angel 
was passing by. Oh, friends, it would be a great 
mistake if any of us were to close this year and enter 
upon the future without having attended to the one 
thing needful. Let us bend our knees and make one 
trustful prayer that for Jesus' sake our sins may be 
blotted out. 

Then on into the future with mighty faith in God. 
No sooner had these fugitives passed through the 
gates of Egypt, than yonder in the night before them 
rose the pillar of fire, and all through their journey- 
ing it led the way, — a pillar of cloud by day and of 
fire by night. If God thus go before us into the 
future, all is well. 

A happy, happy New Year to you all. It means a 
year of rejoicing in the pardon of sin. A year of 
earnest endeavor in behalf of others. A year of 
simple trust in the God and Father of us all. The 
Lord now bless you and keep you ; the Lord make 
his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; 
the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon 
you and give you peace. 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



"1 would that they were even cut off which trouble you; for, brethren, ye 
have been calied unto liberty." — Gal. v., 12. 

The Stamp Act went into operation in America on 
November ist, 1759. In the City of New York it was 
proclaimed under the skull and cross-bones instead 
of the royal arms; and the people paraded the streets 
carrying a banner on which was inscribed " England's 
folly and America's ruin." In Boston the event was 
signalized by the tolling of bells ; the flags on the 
ships in the harbor were at half-mast. In the old 
West Church a sermon was preached by the Rev. 
Jonathan Mayhew on this text : " I would that they 
were even cut off which trouble you ; for, brethren, 
ye have been called to liberty/' It was a famous 
sermon on the right of the colonies to self-govern- 
ment. An eloquent presentation was made of their 
devotion to motherland ; their lavish contribution to 
her exchequer ; the jeopardizing of life in her behalf 
on the high places of the field. And this was their 
reward ; a betrayal of their simplest rights and most 
important interests. 

The people of New York have recently passed 
through a political revolution.* There never was a 
more enthusiastic mustering of the clans in behalf of, 

* This sermon was preached immediately after the inauguration of muni- 
cipal magistrates elected on the " Reform Ticket " November 6th, 1894. 

(142) 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



143 



municipal regeneration. All sorts and conditions of 
right-thinking people, Jews and Gentiles, Romanists 
and Protestants, united under the magic legend, 
" Reform." The smoke of that conflict has scarcely 
cleared away when the startling announcement is 
made that our newly elected Legislature may, at the 
behest of certain of our municipal magistrates, lend 
itself to the overturning of the American Sabbath 
and the concession of increased privilege to the 
liquor traffic. It is proposed to so amend the exist- 
ing Excise Laws as to introduce what is called the 
"Ohio plan " — by which the saloon keeper is to be 
permitted to carry on his business on the payment of 
a fee of two hundred and fifty dollars — with " local 
option " respecting the opening of dram shops on the 
Lord's Day. 

It will be seen that two questions are involved. 
On the one hand, an increase of the privileges of the 
dram-shop. At this point there is no difference of 
opinion among right-thinking people of every class. 
We are all agreed that the saloon is an unqualified 
curse. It has done evil and only evil all the days of 
its life. It is the enemy of man ; bloating his face, 
reddening his eyes, polluting the currents of his 
blood, befogging his reason, paralyzing his will, and 
sending him a reeling drunkard out into the endless 
night. It is the enemy of the home ; putting out the 
fire upon the hearth, emptying the barrel and cruse, 
changing the loving wife into a shame-faced thing, 
and sending forth the children in rags and tatters to 
blush because a drunkard begot them. It is the 
enemy of the workshop ; the prevailing distress 
among the laborers of the country being in large 
measure due to the fact that they spend not less than 



144 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



six hundred millions of dollars every year for strong 
drink. It is the enemy of the church ; I can preach 
to prisoners in the Tombs, to men sauntering through 
the public squares, to the dying in the lucid moments 
that come during the delirium of fever, but there is 
one class of people to whom all preaching is love's 
labor lost, that is, to such as have put "an enemy in 
their mouth to steal away their brains." It is an 
enemy of God ; he has been pleased to express him- 
self respecting it in unequivocal terms, pronouncing 
this condemnation upon the dram-seller, " Cursed be 
he that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's lips " ; 
and this woe upon his victim, " No drunkard shall 
inherit the kingdom of God." 

But a question of still greater importance is in- 
volved, to-wit, that of our national rest-day. It is 
not proposed to formally legislate against the Sab- 
bath. Our public functionaries are too wise to raise 
the cry, " Down with the Sabbath ! " This was done 
in the time of the French Revolution when the Lord's 
Day was erased from the Calendar, only to be 
restored after the mobs had surged through the 
streets and the gutters had run with blood. One such 
experiment will answer for all time. In the present 
case, however, the attempt to subvert the Sabbath 
is by indirect means. In certain localities, where 
the people shall so express themselves, the dram-shops 
are to be open after the morning hour of divine service. 
By the grace of the Legislature of New York, the Lord 
is to be permitted to retain one-half of his Sabbath, 
while the other shall be turned over to the Prince of 
Darkness ! And observe this is only when the people 
of any particular locality shall express themselves in 
favor of it. 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



145 



The method is known as " local option." No 
doubt there are matters of such local importance as 
that only the communities having interests involved 
should determine them. But in questions touching 
the great fundamental facts of our American civiliza- 
tion the voice, which shall ultimately determine, 
must ever be the voice of the whole people. Ours is 
a government of the people, for the people, by the 
people. That is to say, the majority rule. It is ap- 
parent then that " local option " in matters of na- 
tional moment is in direct contravention of the prin- 
ciples of popular sovereignty. There was a time 
when Brigham Young and the dignitaries of the 
Mormon Church announced that they proposed to 
settle the question of plural marriage for themselves, 
no matter what the general government should say 
about it. But a detachment of the American Army 
went out to the Wahsatch mountains and put an end 
to " local option " there. The institution in question 
was of such general importance that no single com- 
munity could pass upon it. And there was a time 
Jater on when a portion of our country, lying south 
of Mason and Dixon's line, in its devotion to a pecu- 
liar institution, determined to withdraw from the fel- 
lowship of the other states. The entire force of the 
general government was brought into requisition to 
put down that rebellion ; and, when at last the four 
awful years of our Civil War were over, it was settled 
that u local option," in matters of national interest, 
has no weight as against the voice of the whole peo- 
ple. There are indeed rights reserved by the several 
commonwealths under the doctrine of " State Sover- 
eignty," but not of such a character as in any case to 
antagonize the general interest. It is now respect- 



146 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



fully submitted that the question of Sabbath rest is 
one of such universal interest, involving the welfare 
of all classes but particularly of our workingmen, 
that it cannot safely be left to the judgment of any 
locality, and certainly not to the judgment of our 
great municipal centres. Shall the City of New 
York, with its eighty per cent, of foreign population, 
be permitted to say whether our American Sabbath 
shall live or die ? Shall a moral principle of such 
dimensions be submitted to the "bloody Eighth" 
Ward ? That way lies danger. The people of Amer- 
ica alone have a right in the last reduction to deter- 
mine as to principles and institutions which are 
essential to the public weal. 

I. We, therefore, enter a respectful protest against 
the proposed enactment in the name of the American 
people. The great majority of the people of this re- 
public, beyond all question, being distinctly Ameri- 
cans, are loyal to the institution known as the Ameri- 
can Sabbath. They have never given the slightest 
intimation to the contrary. They have, times with- 
out number, expressed themselves in its favor. The 
American Sabbath is as distinctively one of our na- 
tional institutions as universal suffrage or freedom of 
conscience. When DeTocqueville returned to France 
from his visit to our country, on being asked which of 
our institutions seemed to him most characteristic, 
he answered without hesitation, " The American 
Sabbath; on that day the hammer lies on the 
anvil, the fire is banked in the furnace, the work- 
man is resting in his home." This is a true witness. 
In no other country is the rest-day so generally ob- 
served; in no other country is it so made to subserve 
the interests of all sorts and conditions of men. For 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



147 



the sake of the Republic we should be jealous in its 
behalf, and our Legislature should be slow to take 
any action looking toward its surrender. Aside from 
the fact that it secures for our Republic the promised 
blessing of Jehovah, he has ever protected the Sab- 
balh-keeping nations, and visited with his vengeance 
such as have permitted its desecration. It is con- 
nected with the best interests of our nation in many- 
ways. 

II. An humble protest against the proposed en- 
actment is made, also, in the name of the people of this 
Commonwealth of New York. We call it the Empire 
State. It is the most American of all our Common- 
wealths. No other is so justly proud of its home life. 
And the American home goes hand in hand with the 
American Sabbath ; the two are inseparably related. 
The Sabbath is, indeed, the only day on which our 
workingmen have an opportunity of becoming ac- 
quainted with their own households. They go to 
their shops in the early morning and return at even- 
ing so weary that they are glad to betake themselves 
to tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep. But on 
the Sabbath they are in the bosom of their families. 
It is par excellence the home-day. The proposed 
amendment of our Excise Laws would give us, as 
opposed to this, the Continental Sabbath. You may 
see it in almost any of the cities of Europe where the 
men are accustomed to frequent the "spirit stores" 
and the beer-gardens on the Lord's Day. 

A recent necrological report by Prof. Roscher of 
Leipsic makes mention of this remarkable fact, that 
in Germany the great majority of female suicides 
occurs on Sun day, but of male suicides on Monday. 
And the reason, as he indicates, is plain to see ; on 



THE SUNDAY SALOON, 



Sunday, while the men are away at the gardens 
listening to pleasant music and quaffing their beer, 
the women are left at home and given over in their 
abandonment to misery and despair ; on Monday, 
however, the men, recovering from the debauch of 
the previous day, " loathe themselves and die." This 
is one of the incidents of that Continental Sabbath 
which the Legislature of the State of New York is 
asked to introduce among us. 

III. A protest is entered respectfully, also, in be- 
half of our city. The liquor traffic has power enough 
already. Why should we propose to increase it ? 
Here is the bitter source of all our municipal trouble. 
When Lord Byron was enlisted in behalf of the free- 
dom of Greece, irritated by the hostility of England 
to that struggling people, he wrote this : 

" The world is a bundle of hay, 

Mankind are the asses who pull ; 
Each pulls in a different way, 
And the greatest of all is John Bull " 

The " pull " referred to by the poet has come to be a 
familiar term among us ; and it has been pretty much 
monopolized by the rumseller. We have grown 
weary of his tyranny. Why in the name of common 
justice should our citizens consent to increase it? 
At this moment we are talking of the " Larger New 
York." Let us suppose that Father Knickerbocker 
were to present his suit to the suburban territory in 
some such way as this : " I pray you, let us unite our 
interests for better or worse, for richer or for poorer, till 
death shall part us. In my own behalf let me say, I 
have nine thousand saloons with all their attractions 
to offer — if drawn up in line they would make a red 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



149 



lighted street of more than thirty miles. I have an 
imposing array, also, of gambling halls and dens of 
infamy. There is no city in the country which makes 
so large an exhibition of the social evil, and this I 
am now endeavoring to legalize and localize. I am 
also doing my utmost to increase the power of 
the saloons by offering them a more liberal tenure of 
life and giving them the privilege of carrying on their 
traffic during the larger portion of every Lord's 
day." It is safe to say that to such an honest pre- 
sentation of his claims the answer would be, "De- 
clined with thanks." 

IV. An earnest and unhesitating protest is, also, 
entered in behalf of the Church. . It is probable that 
there never was a more concerted movement among 
the churches in behalf of any public measure than 
during the recent campaign. It was like the muster- 
ing of the tribes of Israel in response to the blast of 
the silver trumpets and the cry, " To the help of the 
Lord against the mighty ! " We were told that the 
campaign was for sound morals, for the Ten Com- 
mandments, for the sanctity of law ; but if recent 
signs are to be trusted, we were fooled. If the 
social evil is to be made legitimate in certain quar- 
ters, then we were made coparceners in an assault 
upon the seventh commandment. If the saloon is to 
have its privileges increased, then our influence was 
subsidized for the overthrow of the sixth and eighth 
commandments. And if the whole or a portion of 
the Sabbath is to be turned over to the tender mer- 
cies of the 'dramseller, then we were used for the 
undermining of the fourth commandment. We have • 
often been called, " God's silly people " ; and it would 
appear that we have, in some measure, earned the 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



appellation, if indeed the event shall prove that our 
foes have made it possible to consummate this 
iniquity. 

V. And finally a protest is entered on behalf of the 
new administration of this city. It is rumored that at a 
time during the recent campaign, when the votes of 
the so-called German Reform League were in ques- 
tion, one or more of the leading candidates on the 
Reform Ticket announced themselves in favor of 
opening the saloons on the Sabbath-day, and that the 
votes of the brewers and their friends were secured 
in this manner ; and that it only remains now to de- 
liver the goods. This rumor is not to be believed for 
a moment, because it is incredible that men of the 
character referred to should have so compromised 
their manhood and their loyalty to their truest friends. 
We take this occasion, therefore, to resent the impu- 
tation. It was for an offence such as here suggested 
that Charles II. was written down as one of the most 
odious names in history; for while he subscribed him- 
self as a friend to the solemn league and covenant, he 
was in negotiation for the Scottish throne with the 
Papal See. Such duplicity as that makes men infa- 
mous. If an intimation of the present charge had 
been made during the campaign, it is safe to say that 
the churches would have unanimously repudiated the 
movement in behalf of so-called reform. We shall, 
therefore, expect our magistrates to purge them- 
selves effectively of this libellous reflection upon their 
honor. Whoever is behind the present movement of 
the Legislature in New York, it certainly cannot be 
the men whom we prayerfully chose to honestly and 
impartially administer our laws. 



THE SUNDAY SALOON. 



The churches have the power to prevent the con- 
summation of this scheme. A vast majority of the 
people of our Commonwealth believe in God and 
morality. Let them make their convictions known 
and felt in time and those who are engineering the 
present movement will be glad to abandon it. There 
never was a truer thing said than this of John 
Foster's, " Power to the last atom is responsibility." 
If we lose our Sabbath in the city of New York, it 
will be because the people of the churches are rec- 
reant to their solemn trust. Our magistrates are not 
our masters, but our servants. Let us frankly tell 
them so. They are chosen not to make new policies 
with respect to great moral questions, but to execute 
existing laws without fear or favor. It devolves upon 
us to see that our influence shall not go for naught. 
The Master likened our influence to salt, adding, 
" But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it 
be salted ? " In behalf of our country, our Common- 
wealth and the church let us stand for the right as 
we understand it. This is our liberty ; the glorious 
liberty of the children of God 



THE WALDENSES. 



" The light shineth in darkness."— John. i. 5.* 

The founder of the Italian Church was the Apostle 
Paul. As a prisoner in the praetorian camp, he 
preached for two whole years the unsearchable riches 
of the gospel of Christ. The character of his preach- 
ing may be determined from his Epistles which have 
furnished the doctrinal material for the symbols of 
all the churches of the Reformation. The time came, 
however, when Paul was led out beyond the walls 
and executed, and his believing hearers were driven 
* by persecution in all directions. Some of them found 
a refuge in the valley of Piedmont, at the foot of 
the Maritime Alps which separate France from Italy. 

This valley is only twice as large as Manhattan 
Island, but it occupies a great place on the map of 
the world. The Christians who dwelt here were 
surrounded by picturesque beauty on every side. 
The mountains round about them were tokens of the 
watchcare of God. They were secluded like Israel 
in Palestine, as in a sanctuary. Here they kept the 
simplicity of their faith. The temptations of luxury 
and worldliness were unfelt by them. The strifes 
and controversies of nations were nothing to them. 

* On the shield of the Waldensian Church is the golden candlestick sur- 
mounted by seven stars with the legend, Lux lucet in tenebris ; i. e., "The 
iierht shineth in darkness." 

(152) 



THE WALDENSES. 



153 



In their seclusion they kept as a sacred inheritance 
the faith that had once been delivered to the saints. 

It was not for nothing that God had thus enclosed 
them in a solitary place. They were reserved for 
a great purpose. These people, who at no time 
in their history numbered more than thirty thou- 
sand, have constituted from time immemorial a 
missionary church. In the early centuries it was 
their custom to send forth colporteurs two by two ; 
a barba or presbyter in company with a younger man. 
These went in all directions carrying packs of mer- 
chandise and scattering the truth of the Scriptures 
wherever they went. The traffic of these Vaudois 
peddlers is described in one of Whittier's poems, 
which, rendered into the Italian tongue, is cherished 
in the Piedmont Valley at this day. The packs be- 
ing opened and the beautiful fabrics and jewels dis- 
played, the peddler is represented as saying : 

" O, lady fair, these silks of mine 

Are beautiful and rare — 
The richest web of the Indian loom 

Which beauty's self might wear. 
And these pearls are pure and mild to behold, 

And with radiant light they vie ; 
I have brought them with me a weary way: 

Will my gentle lady buy? " 

The lady purchases and turns away. He speaks 
and recalls her : 

" O, lady fair, I have yet a gem, 

Which a purer lustre flings 
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown 

On the lofty brow of kings ; 
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, 

Whose virtues shall not decay ; 
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, 

And a blessing on thy way ! " 



*54 



THE WALDENSES. 



At this point, her curiosity excited, she bids him 
produce his wonderful treasure : 

The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, 

As a small and meagre book, 
Unchased with gold or diamond gem, 

From his folding robe he took : 
" Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price — 

May it prove as much to thee ! 
Nay, keep thy gold— I ask it not— 

For the Word of God is free" 

We are now beginning to see what the divine pur- 
pose may have been in preserving this humble com- 
munity so jealously among the hills. To them is 
largely committed the work of the evangelization 
of Italy. There are but seventeen pastors in the 
Valley itself, but in the regions without they have 
forty-three missionary pastors, besides fifty-five 
evangelists. There is an almost continuous line of 
missionary stations from Torre Pellice, Turin, Milan, 
Como, Brescia, Venice, Verona, Naples, Rome, 
Brindisi and other towns and villages down to the 
remotest end of Sicily. Is it not the very irony of 
history that this people, persecuted through the cen- 
turies by the Papal Church, should now be the 
chosen instrument of preaching Christ to Italy ? If 
the other branches of the universal Church were as 
efficient in missionary service, it is safe to say that 
the conversion of the nations would be near at 
hand. 

In the year 1209 Otho IV. of Germany, on his 
way to Rome to be consecrated Emperor by Pope 
Innocent III., gave authority to the Archbishop of 
Turin to exterminate the Waldenses. This was the 
beginning of long centuries of fire and blood. In 



THE WALDENSES. 



155 



the heroic history of these people, during this long 
period of persecution, we find the counterpart of one 
of the vivid prophecies of the Apocalypse (Rev. xii.). 
A woman is represented with a child in her arms : 
she is clothed in the sun with the moon under her 
feet and wearing a crown of twelve stars. The wo- 
man is the Church ; the child is — shall we say the 
Child Jesus or his pure gospel ? She is pursued by 
the red dragon ; the dragon of persecution with 
seven heads and ten horns of power, drawing after 
him one-third of the stars of heaven. To her are 
given the wings of an eagle that she may fly into the 
wilderness where she is nourished for a time, and 
times, and half a time. And the dragon was wroth 
with the woman who kept the commandments and 
testimony of Jesus Christ. 

We have in America three anniversaries which we 
cherish with the most grateful pride : 1620 when the 
land was first trodden by the feet of those who 
sought freedom to worship God ; 1776 when from 
the belfry of Independence Hall rang out the mes- 
sage, " All men are created free and equal and with 
inalienable rights " ; and 1863 when Lincoln signed 
the Emancipation Proclamation. The Waldenses 
also have three anniversaries, all of them antedating 
ours and signalizing events of most painful mem- 
ory : 

In 1393 under the authority of Pope Gregory II. 
an attack was made upon the villages of the Wal- 
densian Valley. All efforts to convert this people 
through monks de propaganda fide had been vain. The 
bitter methods of inquisitors sent de extirpandis here- 
ticis had been equally vain. Then came the Bull 
of Extermination. On May 22d of that memorable 



'56 



THE WALDENSES. 



year the churches were decorated as for some great 
festivity, but the people of the Valley were silent and 
in tears. Two hundred and thirty fires were kindled 
along the highway ; two hundred and thirty of the 
leading men of the Valley were led forth to be burn- 
ed at the stake. This was followed by seizures and 
confiscations and tortures and deaths until, the sur- 
vivors having fled to the mountains, the Valley was 
quite solitary. The soldiers, however, were not with- 
drawn until they were needed over in France to rein- 
force the strength of Joan of Arc who herself was 
presently to be burned at Rouen. For those were 
burning days. 

In 1488 there was a new fulmination by Innocent 
VIII. The Valley was again invaded by armed men. 
At the first village they paused and strangled eigh- 
teen men. The Waldenses, unable to resist an army 
of twenty times their number, again retreated to the 
hills driving their flocks and singing Psalms as they 
went upward. One-third of the way up, six hundred 
feet above the Valley, there is a cavern called Ailfred 
with a shelf of rock above it. Here the aged people 
with the women and children, who were unable to 
continue the flight, were placed, and provisions for 
two years were left with them. Cataneo, the captain 
of the invading army, scaled the mountain and let 
down men from above with ropes ; these piled fagots 
against the mouth of the cave and setting fire to 
them, smoked out the fugitives like mice and slaugh- 
tered them. Three thousand perished that day, of 
whom four hundred were infants. It was a great 
day's work for the Vicar of God ! 

In 1535 a general amnesty was proclaimed by Fran- 
cis I. on condition of abjuration within six months. 



THE WALDENSES. 



157 



Not one of the Waldenses abjured his faith. They 
were required to attend mass or die ; instead, they 
retreated to the hills. As the men-at-arms on their 
pursuit were passing Pra-del-Tor a shower of stones 
was rained upon them from above with fatal effect 
and for that a bloody vengeance was exacted. 
The inquisition was set up. There were tortures un- 
speakable ; such as could be seized were flayed, 
burned, shredded with iron whips, hurled from the 
rocks. At Montalto there were eighty-eight pris- 
oners who filed through the door one by one with 
linen bandages over their eyes. As they came forth 
their throats were cut until eighty-eight bleeding 
trunks lay there in line. Eighty-six were flayed 
alive; the bodies of some were cleft in twain and im- 
paled on pikes along the high-road. No less than 
sixteen hundred suffered death in this persecution. 

The heroism of this people and the value of their 
magnificent struggle for freedom, may be learned 
from a comparison with persecutions among the 
greater nations ; in the time of bloody Mary there 
were two hundred and seventy-seven only who suf- 
fered for the faith. Here in the valley of Piedmont 
there were many who had their eyes and tongues 
torn out, their entrails dragged forth ; they were cut 
with sabres and their wounds were salved with 
quicklime ; their mouths were filled with powder, 
which was lighted ; their nails were torn off. Does 
the recital sicken us ? What of the reality ? And 
the men who wrought these things were greeted with 
Te Deums on their return to Rome ! 

At length a proclamation was issued by Louis XIV 
requiring the people to abjure their religion or go 
forth from the valley. They fled to the mountains 



THE WALDENSES. 



again and kindled the bivouac fires. Popery was 
triumphant at last. A band of eighty men crept out 
from their hiding and fought like lions. They were 
defeated. Their lives were spared on condition that 
they should go. Wearied by centuries of harrying, 
the people consented to leave their homes. It was 
mid-winter when they crossed the Alps, in all two 
thousand six hundred and fifty-six souls. Many of 
them died on the way. The survivors found an hos- 
pitable welcome and shelter at Geneva and the sur- 
rounding country, and here they remained for the 
brief period of four years. But they were moun- 
taineers and homesick all the time. Then a leader 
arose among them, Henri Arnaud — "one of the few 
immortal names which were not born to die." He 
collected a troop of eight hundred who met secretly 
in the forest and by the lake shore. One August day, 
they set out upon the homeward march. They passed 
the upper lines of the enemy to the bridge of Dora 
where, after desperate fighting, they pushed their 
way through. On they went, chanting the seventy- 
fourth Psalm, and after incidental struggles re- 
sumed possession of their former homes. 

It was during the latter days of these weary persecu- 
tions that Oliver Cromwell wrote a pathetic protest to 
his majesty the king of France which was delivered by 
the hand of Sir Samuel Morland and ran in part as 
follows : " May it please your Most Serene and Royal 
Highness, I am sent by Prince Oliver, Lord Protector 
of the Commonwealth of England, unto your royal 
highness, whom he heartily saluteth, wishing you 
life, a long reign, and prosperous success in all your 
affairs. As for myself, though I be a young men, I 
confess, and have not much experience, yet it pleased 



THE WALDENSES. 



159 



my most serene and gracious master to send me, 
being one that is much devoted to your royal high- 
ness, and a great lover of all of the people of Italy, 
to negotiate matters of great importance, for so those 
affairs are to be called, wherein the safety of many 
poor, distressed people, and all their hope, is com- 
prehended, which indeed consisteth wholly in 
this, if so be that by all their loyalty, obedience, 
and most humble petitions, they may be able to 
mollify and appease the mind of your royal high- 
ness, which hath been provoked against them. In 
behalf of these poor people whose cause even 
commiseration itself may seem to make the more 
excusable, the most serene Protector of England is 
also become an intercessor ; and he most earnestly 
entreateth and beseecheth your royal highness, that 
you would be pleased to extend your mercy to these 
your very poor subjects, and most disconsolate out- 
casts ; I mean those, who inhabiting beneath the Alps, 
and certain valleys under your dominion, are profes- 
sors of the Protestant religion. For he hath been 
informed, that part of these most miserable people 
have been cruelly massacred, part driven by violence, 
and forced to leave their native habitations ; and so, 
without house or shelter, poor and destitute of all 
relief, do wander up and down, with their wives and 
children, in craggy and uninhabited places, and 
mountains covered with snow. Oh ! the smoking 
homes, the torn limbs, the ground denied with blood! 
Some decrepit with age and sickness, have been 
burnt in their beds. Some infants have been dashed 
against the rocks, others have had their throats cut, 
whose brains have, with more than Cyclopean cruelty, 
been boiled and eaten by the murderers ! What need 



i6o 



THE WALDENSES. 



I mention more, although I could reckon up very- 
many cruelties of the same kind, if I were not aston- 
ished at the very thought of them. If all the tyrants 
of all times and ages were alive again, (which I would 
speak without any offence to your highness, seeing 
we believe none of these things were done through 
any default of yours,) certainly they would be 
ashamed when they should find that they had con- 
trived nothing, in comparison with these things, that 
might be reputed sufficiently barbarous and inhu- 
man. In the meantime, the angels are surprised with 
horror ; men are amazed ; heaven itself seemeth 
to be astonished with the cries of dying men ; and 
the very earth to blush, being discolored with the 
gore blood of so many innocent persons ! Do not 
thou, O thou most high God, do not thou take that 
revenge, which is due to so great wickedness, and 
horrible villanies ! Let thy blood, O Christ, wash 
away this blood ! " 

It was at this period, also, that John Milton, who 
was the secretary of Oliver Cromwell, wrote those 
famous lines : 

" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 
E'en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
Forget not : in thy book record their groans, 
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd 
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
An hundred-fold, who having learnt thy way, 
Early may fly the Babylonian woe ! " 



THE WALDENSES. 



161 



Was it worth the price ? Are there adequate re- 
sults to show for all this outlay of life? And what 
have we inherited from these lamentable years of 
persecution ? 

First, a lesson as to the sanctity of truth. In 
these days of shallow convictions it is well for us to 
recall the memory of those heroic men who believed 
that truth was of more value than comfort, posses- 
sions, or life itself. The Waldenses believed in God. 
They believed in the Bible as the veritable word of 
God. They believed that doctrine of Justification by 
Faith which the great father of the Reformation was 
pleased to call, " The doctrine of a standing or a 
falling church." " Stand for the truth " was their 
motto; nor could a better be found for believers then 
or now. Stand for the truth, for it cannot be valued 
with the gold of Ophir. Stand for your convictions 
with life, fortune and sacred honor. 

Second, a lesson in toleration. We sit comfort- 
able under our vines and fig-trees in these piping 
times of peace and . prate of toleration as if it involved 
a surrender of truth. "T have my opinions and you 
have yours ; but they are not worth quarreling about. 
Let us surrender them in the interest of peace." But 
this is not toleration ; it is a cowardly subterfuge. 
The rationale of true religious freedom runs on this 
wise : " You have your opinions, and I have mine. 
On either side they are deeply grounded in heart and 
conscience. Let us both alike cherish our convic- 
tions and yet keep the peace ; each recognizing that 
the other has equally with himself a right to his own 
belief and his own fashion of worshipping God." 
This is broad and generous " liberalism " ; it involves 
no sacrifice of true manhood or devotion to principle. 



162 



THE WALDENSES. 



This was the sort of freedom for which the Wal- 
denses ever contended. They were at no period 
disposed to interfere with the ecclesiastical rights of 
those who differed with them ; all that they claimed 
— and for this they were willing to pledge their lives — 
was the liberty of believing and worshipping in their 
own way. 

Third, a lesson as to the perpetuity of the 
Church. The very existence of the Waldenses is 
among the greatest miracles of history. The sword 
could not destroy them ; the fire could not consume 
them. The prophecy of Christ respecting his Church 
was fulfilled in them ; " The gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." 

Fourth and finally, a lesson as to the inestima- 
ble value of our religion. It has been purchased for 
us with a great price. The blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself has been touched by tributary streams 
of martyr blood all through the ages. A noble 
army of witnesses passes before us : Huss and 
Latimer and Savonarola, the Vaudois, the Hugue- 
nots, the Covenanters, the Puritans, old men and 
women and children, their garments all aflame and 
blood streaming down their faces. These men 
labored and we have entered into their labors. They 
suffered, and we inherit the benefit. As they pass by 
on their way toward the heaven above, they certify 
to us with a yea and amen beyond all eloquence of 
spoken words, that the gospel of our Lord and Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ is true, gloriously true, forever 
true ! It gives us a religion to live by and to die 
by. God help us to be faithful in defending and in 
living it. 



"BUT GROW." 



" But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ."— II. Peter iii, 18. 

There are three chapters in the " Ascent of Man," 
and after that an eternal sequel. The three chapters 
are sin, regeneration and life ; the eternal sequel is 
growth unto a perfect man. 

(i) Sin is death, that is, it is a malady whose sure 
outcome is spiritual and eternal death. " The soul 
that sinneth it shall die," not because God said so — 
for this is merely a forensic sanction put upon an in- 
evitable law — but because death as the consequence 
of sin is interwoven with the fibers of the human con- 
stitution. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. 
It need scarcely be said, however, that death does not 
mean annihilation. Death never means annihilation. 
A tree is said to be dead, not because it has ceased to 
exist, but because it no longer exercises its normal 
functions, being merely a leafless trunk cumbering 
the earth. A man is said to be dead, not because he 
has ceased to be, but because having ears he hears 
not and having eyes he sees not. In like manner a 
soul is said to be dead in consequence of this moral 
malady — because the will and heart and conscience 
no longer do their proper work, have no practical 
grasp of invisible and eternal verities, make no re- 
sponse to the appeal of the Spirit of God. 

(163) 



164 



" BUT GROW." 



(2) Regeneration marks the important crisis in 
the history of a soul. It is the arrest and reversal 
of the process of disease and dissolution. In the 
operation of physical disease there is a time when a 
fever comes to a hand-to-hand conflict with all the 
restorative forces. The " crisis " has come. The 
physician stands at the bedside, noting all the 
symptoms, feeling the fluttering pulse, saying at 
length, " There is no hope " ; or else " There is a 
change for the better." Regeneration is this change 
for the better in the spiritual province. It occurs 
when a man, fixing his eyes upon the atoning death 
of Jesus, receives its power into his life, — this be- 
ing the only specific for sin. This acceptance of 
Christ marks the favorable passing of the crisis, for 
at that instant the work of regeneration is wrought 
by the Spirit and the soul enters into newness 
of life. 

(3) Life' is the unspeakable gift. The Saviour 
said, " I am come that ye might have life and that ye 
might have it more abundantly " — life, in ever in- 
creasing power. This life means not merely the 
arrest of spiritual disease and dissolution, but the 
quickening of all the energies of the soul. Old 
things are passed away, behold all things are become 
new — new hopes, new purposes, new aspirations. 
The man is turned right about. He was facing to- 
ward the eternal darkness ; now he looks with eager 
eyes toward truth and goodness, and strives with a 
constantly increasing desire to return to his first 
estate in the likeness of God. 

This is the beginning. Then growth, the eternal 
sequel. The objective point is character, which is 
another name for Christlikeness. But observe that 



"but grow.' 



165 



there is no possibility of growth except to such as 
have entered into life. Life is the prerequisite. I may 
thrust a dry stick into the ground and foster it with 
all possible care, giving it access to the sunlight 
and the dews of the morning, but I shall never have 
anything but a dry stick ; no growth, no foliage, no 
fruit, because there was no life. So is the case with 
many a brave struggler, who, by the frequent making 
of good resolutions, strives in vain to attain unto the 
virtues of perfect manhood. Let him begin at the 
beginning by accepting Christ, so entering into life. 
When once he begins to live, he must needs begin to 
grow. This is the word of promise : " I am the vine, 
ye are the branches ; abide in me and I in you, so 
shall ye bear much fruit ; for without me ye can do 
nothing." 

This growing is the business of the Christian life. 
The man of our text knew whereof he spoke when he 
urged this growth in grace and in the knowledge of 
Christ. He had been a diamond in the rough ; a 
fisherman wont to emphasize with an oath his com- 
mands amid the storms of Gennesaret ; blunt, head- 
strong, with much to overcome and much to learn. 
But as the years passed, he became under the nurture 
of the Holy Spirit a different man. The thought of 
moral culture had taken possession of him and found 
a splendid realization in his own character. It was 
meet, therefore, that he should dwell upon its impor- 
tance ; as he does not only here but often elsewhere. 
For example he says : "Add to your faith virtue, and 
to virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance ; 
and to temperance patience ; and to patience godli- 
ness ; and to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to 
brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in 



i66 



"but grow." 



you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither 
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 

The figure in Peter's mind is that of infancy ad- 
vancing to the full stature of a man. The gods of 
the ancients were born full grown. Minerva is said 
to have sprung all armed and panoplied from the 
forehead of Jove. But Christians begin as babes in 
Christ and advance through certain conditions of 
normal growth to the " measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." 

How ? Here is the important matter in hand. 
How do Christians grow to the fulness of character ? 
How do other infants grow ? We shall find a perfect 
analogy at this point. The same conditions hold in 
the spiritual as in the physical province with respect 
to the making of a man. 

I. The first thing necessary is food. The saints' 
pabulum is the Word of God. Herein is both milk 
for babes and meat for men. 

Christ is the Word; the Incarnate Word. We grow 
just in the measure in which we partake of him. It 
is not enough that we should gaze upon his portrait 
as an objective thing, regarding him as chief est among 
ten thousand and altogether lovely ; but we must so 
apprehend him as to blend his very life with ours. 
This is the meaning of the Sacrament which is indeed 
memorial of the great tragedy by which we entered 
into life. But more than that, it is the type and symbol 
of the mystical union with him, as it is written : "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son 
of Man, ye have no life in you." We must so appre- 
hend him as to be able to say, "My Lord, my Sav- 
iour, my gracious Intercessor." We must so eat of 



"but grow.' 



167 



his flesh and drink of his blood, as that his will shall 
become our will, his purposes our purposes, his nod 
and beck our only law. We must so interchange our 
very being with his, that we shall be able to declare 
"I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." 

The Bible, also, is the Word of God. It is the com- 
plement of the Incarnate Word in such a manner as 
that these two, taken together, constitute the complete 
revelation of God. The prayer of the Master in our 
behalf was, " Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word 
is truth." We fall short of our privilege and dwarf 
our stature, when we satisfy ourselves with a merely 
critical and objective study of the Scriptures. Men 
do not sit down at the king's table to analyze the food 
set before them, but to eat it. So let us approach the 
Scriptures, not for purposes of critical dissection, but 
to partake of all their glorious truths to the building 
up of our spiritual strength and the perfecting of our 
character. To those who are hungry for moral sus- 
tenance its songs are sweet morsels, its promises are 
as honey dropping from the rock, its precepts and 
doctrines are milk* and meat for the making of bone 
and sinew. Bible Christians are strong Christians. 
They sit at a loaded table ; all the things spread be- 
fore them are for the satisfying of their hunger and 
the building up of their strength, as it is written : 
"All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." 

II. Work, also, is necessary for growth. Food 
makes muscle, but work hardens it. For want of 
this our children become puny and nerveless. Why 
is it that the decimated ranks of commerce in our 



♦ 



i68 



"but grow." 



metropolitan cities are supplied from the country ? 
It is because the farmer's boy rises at day-break to 
feed the stock, while the city boy lies abed until the 
maid calls him. We languish, also, in the Church by 
reason of the fact that our new converts do not 
always find enough to do. 

We are told in the Arabian Nights of a certain 
pasha who was overcome by languor and indisposition. 
He sent for the court physician, who prescribed for 
him on this wise : he called for a wooden sphere 
which he filled with certain drugs ; then for a hollow 
rod in which he placed a decoction of magical herbs ; 
then the rod was fastened into the sphere and the 
physician said, " Take this, O Pasha ! go out into the 
garden and beat upon the earth with it, until the 
medicine within shall exude in perspiration and creep 
into thy flesh and blood." The narrator adds that 
the patient was perfectly restored. A similar pre 
scription would not be amiss in our churches. 
And indeed there is no lack of exercise in the 
economy of God. 

Self-conquest is demanded of us. And this means 
severe effort. " There is a war in our members," 
says Paul, — the lower nature contending with the 
higher for the mastery ; the old Adam struggling 
with the new Adam ; the passions and appetites of 
the natural man face to face and eye to eye with the 
new hopes and ambitions. " Hard pounding, gentle- 
men," said Wellington to his aides at Waterloo. 
Hard pounding, indeed, if in this spiritual conflict I 
keep my body under : " For we wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against 
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 



"but grow." 



169 



Cross-bearing also calls for strenuous effort. And 
by cross-bearing we do not mean chastisement ; we 
shall come to that later on. Cross-bearing is doing 
for others. The cross is the pre-eminent symbol of 
altruism. The cross of Jesus represents a voluntary 
work which he took up in behalf of suffering men. 
The cross of the Christian is participation with Christ 
in the great propaganda, in his effort to build up the 
kingdom of truth and righteousness on earth and so 
to deliver the race from sin. It was with this intent 
that our Lord said, "If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." 
The work of the universal Church is cross-bearing. 
To do good at the sacrifice of personal preference and 
convenience. To do good as fishers of men. Oh ! 
the blessedness of this service • to grow weary in toil 
beside the Son of God. 

" One more day's work for Jesus, 
How sweet the work has been ; 

To tell the story, 

To show the glory, 
Where Christ's flock enter in. 

Lord, if I may, 

I'll toil another day." 

III. Recreation, also, is necessary to spiritual 
growth. It is a proverb in common life, "All work 
and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The same is 
true with respect to spiritual life. 

The closet is our play-room. Here it is that we 
refresh ourselves when wearied by sterner tasks. 
There is danger of excess in such recreation, as among 
those recluses who exhaust their time in counting 
their rosaries and contemplating their breviaries; but 
as a rule in these practical days there is much more 



" BUT GROW." 



danger of stinting our closet hours. We thus lose 
the great blessing which the Scotch woman found in 
"just sittin' alone wi' Jesus an' clackin' wi' him." 

The public service of the sanctuary is our play- 
ground. Indeed I am not sure that the word " ser- 
vice" in this connection is not a misnomer. The church 
bell calls us, not to service, but to the pleasures of 
communion with each other and with God. This is 
not duty but recreation. Here are the pleasures 
of friendship and fellowship. We sit together in 
heavenly places with Christ. 

" How pleased and blest was I, 
To hear the people cry : 
Come let us worship God to-day. 
Yes, with a cheerful zeal, 
We'll haste to Zion's hill 
And there our vows and honors pay." 

IV. One thing more is necessary to our growth, 
namely, medicine. It is a fortunate child that never 
needs it. In most cases the system at times runs 
down or disease invades; the physician is called in; 
then the bitter draft and the wry face. We are ask- 
ing in these days, " Does God send trouble ? " No 
and yes. There are two kinds of trouble : 

(i) Trouble which comes in immediate conse- 
quence of sin. The largest portion of our suffering 
is from the devil. Shame and self-contempt, dis- 
eases that come from bad drainage and neglect and 
disobedience to natural laws, political corruption, 
dyspepsia, the sorrow of scapegrace children, these 
are not from God. These are the sequelae of sin. We 
are not warranted, on that account, in saying that 
God has nothing to do with them. He overrules 
them for the good of his children,, as it is written : 



"but grow.' 



171 



" All things work together for good to them that love 
God." He is stronger in this matter than the adver- 
sary of our souls. It was Paul's repeated prayer that 
he might be delivered from his thorn in the flesh ; 
the answer came, not in the drawing of the thorn, 
but in the rich promise, " My grace is sufficient for 
thee." 

(2) There are many troubles, however, which 
must be regarded as paternal chastisements. You 
would not allow your little child to play with a razor; 
you would take it away, so does God. There are 
pleasures and earthly possessions which, as we know 
very well, are like edged tools in our hands. There 
comes a time when God finds it necessary to 
take them away. We sob and weep and cry out 
against it, but our Father knows best. We are his 
children and He is treating us as such. " Behind a 
frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.' 5 " No 
affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but 
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness unto them which are ex- 
ercised thereby." Such chastisements are for our 
spiritual and eternal good ; by them we are strength- 
ened and built up in the most holy faith. 

A few remarks now by way of more practical ap- 
plication. First : Our growth, or, as it is technically 
called, sanctification, is distinctly the work of the 
Holy Ghost. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. 
We shall make no mistake if we put ourselves trust- 
ingly in his care. To resist is to grieve him. Grieve 
not the Spirit of God. Second : Our growth is likely 
to be gradual. There are some of the lower orders 
of plants, consisting merely of cellular tissue, which 



I 7 2 



BUT GROW. 



reach their full maturity in short time. A mushroom 
has been known to grow in a single night from a 
mere atom to a plant six inches in diameter— but it 
was only a mushroom after all. It is said that God's 
people shall grow "like the cedars of Lebanon." 
The cedar takes hold with its roots upon the cliff, re- 
sists the winds and tempests, fills the air with its 
balsamic odors, grows on for a thousand years, 
gnarled and twisted, but the giant of the forest. So 
is Christian growth ; here a little, there a little ; but 
ever more and more toward the strength and fulness 
of noble character. Third • Then the glorious con- 
summation, a man ! A man of full stature ; a man 
restored to the image of God. O t this is worth all 
the pains of earnest growth. When Kepler discov- 
ered the law of planetary distances, he exclaimed, 
" O God ! I thank thee that I am permitted to think 
thy thoughts after thee." This is the glory of man- 
hood ; the sublime possibility before us ; to share 
God's thoughts with him, to enter into the fellow- 
ship of his holy purposes, to participate in his work 
and ultimately to sit together with him in his throne. 
Let this be our prayer : "That we may come unto 
a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ " ; that we may hear him say at 
last, as of his only begotten and well-beloved One, 
"Thou, also, art my son" ; partaker of the divine 
nature by kinship with the First-born who is Elder 
Brother of all. 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF 



EPHRAIM. 

"Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of 
Abi-ezer? — Judges viii. 2. 

It was the day after the battle, and a glorious 
battle it had been. The three hundred of Abi-ezer 
had won a glorious victory over the Midianites, who 
were as grasshoppers for multitude. At dead of 
night, provided with lamps, pitchers and trumpets, 
they went down the mountain side into the hostile 
camp, where each in silence took the place assigned 
to him. At a given signal the lamps were broken, 
the lights flashed forth, the trumpets blared and the 
cry rang out "The sword of the Lord and of 
Gideon ! " The sleepers in their tents awoke, sprang 
from their couches, bewildered, terrified by the 
clangor and the flashing lights and fled every man 
for his life. The three hundred were in hot pursuit, 
their purpose being to intercept the fugitives at the 
ford of Jordan. Heralds were sent over to Mount 
Ephraim to say, " Go down and hold the waters of 
Beth-barah." The men of Ephraim hastened to the 
ford and that night there was a great slaughter. 
When the day broke, the roads were strewn with the 
dead as far as the old camp at Jezreel. The waters 
at Beth-barah were red with blood. Oreb and Zeeb, 
the princes of the Midianites, had been slain. It was 

(173) 



174 THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 



a time for rejoicing, a time to sing " Who is like unto 
our God ; glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders ? " But there was a fly in the ointment. 
The men of Ephraim were always captious and over- 
bearing. "Why hast thou dealt with us so?" they 
demanded of Gideon. " Why were we not. called 
when thou wentest out to battle ? " And they chid 
him sharply. He might have told them they were 
cowards, brave enough to chase a flying foe but not 
to be trusted in the high places of the field. He 
might have told them that they were proud, envious 
and insubordinate. But he knew that a soft answer 
turneth away wrath. "What have I done in compari- 
son with you ? " he answered. " For God hath deliv- 
ered into your hands the princes of Midian. Is not 
the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than 
the vintage of Abi-ezer ? " 

The gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim ! This is 
the portion that falls to us. We are living in a glori- 
ous day. Our fathers gathered the vintage with 
strife and travail and garments rolled in blood. It 
is for us to stand at the waters of Beth-barah and 
gather up the fruits of victory. The world is at its 
very best. If life was ever worth living, it is worth 
living now. Great is the privilege and correspond- 
ingly great is the responsibility of those who are ap- 
pointed to glean the grapes of Ephraim. 

I. Ours is the golden age of truth. 

(i) The body of truth is larger than that of any 
former time. We shall probably agree that Aris- 
totle was one of the most learned of the ancients ; 
but if he were to return to-day, he could scarcely 
pass a preliminary examination for admission to one 
of our grammar schools. The results of past re- 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHR AIM. 175 



search and controversy along the past have accumu- 
lated into a great treasury of knowledge. Each 
generation has contributed its part. One settled the 
matter of the rotundity of the earth ; another gave 
the law of gravitation ; and still another the conser- 
vation of force. One gave gunpowder, another steam, 
and still another electricity. One argued out the 
doctrine of the Incarnation, another the personality 
of the Holy Ghost, and still another that of Justifi- 
cation by Faith. These truths have been laid down 
as postulates upon which to rear a superstructure of 
other truth. To be sure there are people who insist 
on going back and demonstrating each for himself 
these fundamental facts ; as if seamstresses should 
insist on sewing with a fish bone or old-fashioned 
bodkin ; or as if farmers were to plow their fields with 
a crooked stick. But the great multitude of people 
in these days are content and glad to profit by the 
achievements of the past. They believe that a better 
vision of the great landscape of truth may be had by 
standing on the shoulders of their forebears. His- 
tory is not a treadmill wherein men go round and 
round getting nowhere, "forever learning, yet never 
coming to a knowledge of the truth." Nay, rather, 
it is a thoroughfare, the King's highway, whereon 
we journey like a royal troop, league by league, 
laden with the spoils of the conquest until we come 
to the palace of the King. 

(2) The great body of truth, thus accumulated, is 
held in a truer spirit of toleration than the past ever 
knew. It is only two hundred and fifty years since 
Galileo, in the papal council, was required to make 
this statement : " I abjure, curse and detest the heresy 
of the motion of the earth, and I promise to teach 



176 THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 

that the earth is the centre of the universe and an 
immovable body." After which he rose from his 
knees and muttered between his teeth, " Nevertheless 
it does move!" In our time a man is permitted, with- 
out molestation, to believe as he pleases respecting 
such matters. He may hold with Galileo or, if he 
prefers, with John Jasper of Richmond. In like man- 
ner a wise latitude prevails in respect to religious 
views. In the Continental Congress a motion to 
open the sessions of that body with prayer, was op- 
posed by the Hon. John Jay on the ground that so 
many warring sects were represented upon the floor, 
Quakers, Anabaptists, Presbyterians and others, that 
if one prayed, the rest could not with patience hear 
him. Blessed be God, there are no such warring 
sects to-day. The various denominations of believers 
may differ as to non-essentials, but they are all agreed 
as to those great fundamentals of truth which our 
fathers of Abi-ezer have handed down to us from the 
conflicts of the past. One volume of prayer goes up 
from all Christendom in the spirit of a true fellow- 
ship, — "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God 
and Father of us all." 

(3) And along with this spirit of toleration goes a 
truer orthodoxy than of old. The denominations 
may differ, and indeed do differ with respect to 
minor matters, but they are loyal to old landmarks. 
If you want to find skepticism with reference to these, 
go back to the time of the primitive Church and hear 
the Apostles admonishing against Arianism and 
Gnosticism and Docetism and Ebionism and Neo- 
Platonism and countless other erratic modes of faith. 
If you want to find heretics, go back to the Middle 
Ages, when the Bible was chained to the monastery 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 177 



pillars, and see the wide-spread revolt of the human 
intellect against the absolutism of the Church ; the 
days when the lights were out and there was no open 
vision ; when Bulls and Decretals were enforced by 
scourge and thumb-screw and fagot. If you are in 
quest of heretics, go back to the time of the Reforma- 
tion; then, amid the exuberant joy of new-found free- 
dom, all sorts of excesses in infidelity were to be found 
under the banner of religious emancipation. Or if you 
are hunting for heretics, go back to the beginning 
of the present century : the time of Voltaire and 
Rousseau and the French Encyclopedia ; the time of 
Thomas Paine and the "Age of Reason " ; when, at 
the inauguration of President Dwight, there were only 
four professing Christians in Yale College ; when 
there was only one professing Christian in Bowdoin 
College ; when Park Street Church was the only 
orthodox Church in Boston, and so unpopular that 
the " best people " were accustomed to sit under its 
ministrations, with mufflers over their faces. Oh no, 
these are not the days of heresy, but rather of quiet 
rest on the part of the great majority of believers in 
the fundamental and proven facts of the Christian 
system. It is not for nothing that our fathers, in the 
great struggles of the past, formulated our historic 
creeds and symbols. We may differ on some things 
which yet await their final settlement, but the uni- 
versal Church can stand upon its feet to-day and say 
with united voice: "I believe in God the Father 
Almighty and in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord; 
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the 
Virgin Mary, died for us, rose again and shall return 
to judge the quick and dead. I believe in the Holy 
Ghost ; the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of 



178 THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 



saints ; the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of 
the body ; and the life everlasting. Amen." 

II. Ours is, also, the Golden Age of morality, partic- 
ularly in its larger sense as touching all the relations 
of man with his fellow-men. 

(1) The industrial reform may be cited in evidence. 
What does it mean that at this moment tens of 
thousands of workingmen in Brooklyn have struck 
for higher wages ? Such a thing would not have 
been possible in the days of ancient Rome, when all 
wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of 
ten thousand patricians with millions of plebeians 
and slaves under them, to whom were accorded 
neither wages nor rights of any sort whatsoever. A 
strike was never dreamed of then. As late as the 
time of Charles II., a popular ballad was written, set- 
ting forth the complaint of the weavers, who, receiving 
sixpence a day, pleaded for a shilling. We have 
gotten far past the time of silent sufferance or even 
of popular ballads. It is a fact of immense signifi- 
cance that labor and capital, employer and employee, 
have reached the fighting level ; when face to face 
and eye to eye they are settling the problem. A 
ballad calling for a shilling a day ! Nay, not ballads, 
but ballots for the multitude and bullets in the last 
reduction. Nay, not a shilling a day now, but ten 
times as much for the earnest toiler and still a con- 
tention for more. Capital has rights for which it 
tenaciously strives ; labor has rights for which it 
vigorously contends. Out of this conflict must come 
the solution : an honest day's wages for an honest 
day's work ; corporations with souls and laborers 
with rights. Thus are we hastening on to that 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 179 



blessed time " when man to man, the whole world 
o'er shall brothers be an' a' that." 

(2) The temperance reform. This was almost un- 
heard of a century ago. In the American Congress 
of 1789 a duty was placed on glass with a singular 
reservation ; that reservation was in respect to black 
quart bottles, which were to be admitted free ! In 
1808 a Temperance Society was organized in Saratoga 
County, New York, in which forty-three members, all 
of them substantial farmers, pledged themselves not 
to drink gin, whiskey or rum under a penalty of 
twenty-five cents and not to be drunken under a 
penalty of fifty cents for each offence. We have 
travelled a great distance since then. Now we hear 
of total abstinence as the right rule of personal life 
and of prohibition as the best means of controlling 
the drink traffic. For this we have to thank the 
fathers who gathered the vintage of Abi-ezer ; who, 
in the controversies of moral suasion and legislation, 
wrought out these more salutary methods and 
passed on their achievements to us. 

(3) Political reform. We hear much of " civic 
corruption" in these days; of bribery and black-mail 
and the like. In the time of William III., bribery was 
so commonly practised that the king publicly 
announced his inability to dispense with it, saying, 
"Under the existing order of things, to refuse the 
common practice would endanger the crown." The 
municipal corruption which is so arousing the popular 
indignation at this moment would have been made 
little of in former days. It is a good sign — this stir- 
ring about the Augean stables. It is a glorious sign 
this clamoring for the sovereignty of the people. We 
want no monarchy now, no oligarchy now, but true 



l8o THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 



democracy. The people can be trusted. We write 
it large, King People ! Men and potentates are 
reduced to the ranks. God and the people are con- 
trolling things. Nay, God through the people. 
Vox populi vox Dei. 

(4) Sociological problems. All branches of the 
Christian Church are concerned in the discussion of 
questions which touch the welfare of the community ; 
the betterment of home and society ; the care of the 
poor, the aged and all incapables. At the beginning 
of the Christian Era there was a place down by the 
Sheep Market in Jerusalem, where the lame and the 
halt and the withered were laid to await the moving 
of the waters ; this was the best hospital of the time. 
On the other side of Gennesaret, in the land of the 
Gadarenes, a poor demoniac had his dwelling among 
the tombs; that was the best sanitarium for the 
insane of that time. At the Gate Beautiful, a paralytic 
asked an alms of Peter and John as they passed by ; 
that was the best asylum for the poor of those days. 
But all along the line of Christian history, there have 
sprung up institutions for the relief of the poor and 
the suffering, and to-day we are clamoring for more 
hospitals, more sanitariums and more asylums. The 
liberalitas of the ancient world has given way to the 
caritas of our religion. We are beginning to under- 
stand the song of the angels, not merely in its 
ascription of glory to God, but also in its expression of 
good will toward men. 

(5) As to personal character. We make more of 
character and less of adventitious prominence than 
of old. "The rank is but the guinea's stamp, the 
man's the gowd." Vices that were once fashionable 
are disreputable now ; betting, horse-racing, duelling, 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. l8l 

Sabbath desecration, marital infidelity are under the 
ban. The Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount 
have found their way into the walk and conversation 
of the average man. Sin is still here but it does not 
find such open expression in flagrant vices. The 
world expects more of manhood. It certainly expects 
more of Christian manhood. The father of the poet 
Shelley was wont to say, 

" At church on Sunday to attend 
Will serve to make a man your friend." 

This, however, is not the reason why people go to 
church in these days. The world hates sham and 
Pharisaism and inconsistency. Let a Christian go 
astray and he is held up to derision in the newspa- 
pers. This is a great tribute paid to the ethics of 
Christianity. Something higher than ever before is 
expected of it. 

But truth and morality cannot make either a na- 
tion or a man, unless there be something within and 
behind them, to-wit: moral energy. We go on, there- 
fore, to say : 

III. This is the Golden Age of moral energy. Truth 
and ethics are changed into power by a fire burning 
beneath them. The Church works with a purpose. 
A man, aside from his creed and personal graces, 
must in these times have something to do. 

(i) There was a time when good people were 
chiefly concerned about their personal salvation. 
The chief end of man was to escape from that fire 
that is never quenched. The supreme desire was to 
read one's title clear to mansions in the skies. Each 
for himself, was the shibboleth of those days. 



182 THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHR AIM. 



(2) At other times the people of God have been 
chiefly concerned for the preservation of the Church. 
This was the meaning of the Crusades ; in them we 
find a stern endeavor to rescue the Holy Sepulchre, 
and so to vindicate the majesty of the Church and 
avenge her wrongs. The effort was not to convert 
the infidel, but to destroy him root and branch. 
Vae victis! This was the meaning of the Inquisition; 
the Church must be preserved by the burning out of 
heresy. So the rack and the thumb-screw, flashing 
swords and blazing fagots, were brought into requisi- 
tion to save the Church. It seemed to be forgotten 
that this was God's affair and that he had pledged 
himself to the preservation of his Zion, saying, 
" The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

(3) In our time we speak of the Kingdom. This 
is the missionary age. All are summoned to work — 
men, women and children. All are summoned to 
work for the evangelization of the world — the deliv- 
erance of souls from sin. We have at last heard the 
Master say, " Go ye into all the world and evangelize." 
It was only two hundred years ago that Richard 
Baxter lamented, "The world lieth heavy on my 
heart. O, that I might but go and preach the glorious 
gospel among the Turks, Tartars and heathens ! " At 
that time Christianity was provincial, now Chris- 
tianity is cosmopolitan. Baxter could not go. Now 
any man can go. The era of exploration was long ago 
followed by the era of colonization, which has at 
length given way to the era of evangelization. The 
Chinese Wall has fallen down. A new figure — Japan — 
rises among the nations to be the champion of Bud- 
dhism ; to make the last struggle on earth for a false 
religion, which in the near future must vanish like a 



THE GLEANING OF THE GRAPES OF EPHRAIM. 183 

spectre into the limbo of all the false religions of the 
centuries gone by. We seem to be dwelling in the 
early twilight of the last days. The victory of Christ 
is a foregone conclusion. His glory shall cover the 
earth as the waters cover the sea. 

Is life worth living? Is life worth living now? 
Aye, a thousand times. Let us fall in with the men 
of Ephraim for the last gleaning. The blast of God's 
bugle calls us to the fords of Jordan. It devolves 
upon us to make many captives unto hope. A grander 
privilege is ours than ever was known in the days of 
the scourge and dungeon. Glorious heroes were the 
men of Abi-ezer, but Oreb and Zeeb are for us. 

It is said that the battle of Gettysburg was notable 
above all the battles of our Civil War, in that all the 
troops on either side were engaged in it. Old John 
Burns was there with his flint-lock musket. All at 
it ; always at it ; altogether at it. The last battle of 
God's great crusade is for us. The glory of the last 
victory is for us. Let us so realize our privilege and 
our responsibility, also, that we may come at last, 
laden with the gleanings of the vintage, through the 
gates, into the city of God. 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



A Sacramental Heditation. 

" The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer ; my God, my 
strength, in whom I will trust ; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, 
and my high tower." — Ps. xviii. 2. 

Luther thanked God for the personal pronouns. 
Let us go further and thank him for the possessive 
pronoun first person singular. It occurs eight times 
in our text, making a rare inventory of spiritual pos- 
session : " My God, my rock, my fortress, my de- 
liverer, my strength, my buckler, the horn of my 
salvation, my high tower." 

It is the common thing in these times to live in 
apartments. There is this to be said in its favor : 
there is an almost absolute relief from the responsi- 
bilities of home-keeping. No care of the furnace, no 
sweeping of walks, no worry about the morning meal, 
no tax collector, no retinue of servants ; it is indeed 
a dolce far niente sort of life. And yet, the average 
man would rather live in a thatched cottage of his 
own, than in the most palatial suite of rented rooms. 
The right of ownership goes so far ! It warms the 
blood to be able to say, " My wee bit ingle, my thrifty 
wine, my clean hearth-stone." 

This pronoun marks the difference between bar- 
barism and civilization. The Bedouin owns nothing 
save his spear, his prayer rug and his cilicia tent ; not 

(184) 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



even the ground on which he makes his restless home. 
His tribe eats from a common dish and rests on the 
bosom of a common earth. Such communism pre- 
vails ever at the botton of the social fabric. The 
negroes of our Southern States in " de ole slavery 
days " owned nothing. We hear much of their happy- 
go lucky content ; their songs and dances in the 
quarters ; but of rights and privileges, as of other 
personal possessions, they had none. The moment 
their chains were broken the struggle for proprietor- 
ship began. No sooner did they realize that they 
owned themselves than they conceived an ambition 
to own something beside themselves. The brightest 
hope of the Black Belt to-day is in the fact that they 
are struggling for something they can call their own; 
it may be only a two-acre plantation and a humble 
hut, but whenever a man begins to say " my " he is 
looking up, his career as a capitalist has begun, he is 
a stockholder in the commonwealth, his self-respect 
has come to the birth ; the possessive pronoun first 
person singular has done it. 

There are three degrees of apprehension ; that is, 
of coming into the ownership of things : First, in- 
tellectual ; second, emotional ; third, vital. The last 
alone gives a fee simple right. 

As to a given truth in geometry. (1) I see yon- 
der on the blackboard a demonstration of this 
proposition, The area of a circle is equal to that of 
a triangle whose base is equal to the circumference and 
whose height is equal to the radius of this circle. I get an 
intellectual apprehension of the truth of this prop- 
osition from its demonstration on the board. The 
proof is so conclusive that I am constrained to say 
" I believe." (2) I learn presently that this is the 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



very proposition on which Archimedes was employed 
when the city of Syracuse was taken. He was down 
upon his knees engaged in drawing figures on the 
floor when the gates were forced. There was the 
flashing of a sword-blade and the mathematician lay 
dead as the penalty of absorption in his favorite 
pursuit. That which was previously a mere objective 
fact to me, now assumes a new interest. I can never 
again think of that circle and triangle without 
associating therewith the tragic story of Syracuse. 
My emotions have been enlisted. (3) In my desire 
to secure a portion of ground for a garden plot, I 
summon a surveyor who, to the measurement of the 
land, applies the foregoing mathematical principle. 
This brings it vastly nearer to me. In making this 
garden mine I built a fence along the base, the per- 
pendicular and hypothenuse of that triangle, and by 
its cultivation I make my livelihood. So the fact 
which previously touched my intellect or my emotions 
alone, has now become an actual potent part of my 
life and the possessive pronoun first person singular 
may fairly be attached to it. 

Let us approach in like manner the larger truth 
of human equality or the solidarity of the race. (1) 
We are forced to regard it as an ethnological fact. 
Our scientists have been enabled, by observing racial 
resemblances, to trace all tribes and nations back to 
a common source ; teaching us that we are all kins- 
folk, being the sons of Seth, who was the Son of 
Adam, who was the son of God. I yield an intellect- 
ual assent to this fact, but as yet it makes no pro- 
found impression upon me. (2) I stand in the 
shadow of Old Independence Hall in Philadelphia 
and hear the clang of Liberty Bell. They tell me that 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



I8 7 



the announcement which lies at the basis of our con- 
stitutional fabric has at length been made, " All men 
are created free and equal and with certain inalien- 
able rights." My heart beats responsive to that 
truth ; my blood runs hot and fast with patriotic 
emotion ; I now not merely believe, but feel the great 
truth touching my heart. It has come vastly nearer 
than when it touched my brain alone, but it must 
come nearer still before it shall be fully mine. (3) 
My rights with respect to the little garden plot are 
invaded. A neighboring landlord of superior wealth 
and influence clamors for it as Ahab did for Naboth's 
vineyard. My plea is based upon the proposition that 
my influential neighbor is, under the great principle 
of human equality, no greater than I ; that my rights 
are as sacred as his before the Common Law. My 
plea is heard; my claim is respected; thenceforth that 
truth, the equality of all men, has such a practical 
relation to my personal affairs, to my home and live- 
lihood, that I am warranted in saying, " I have made 
it mine." At length I have, by a vital apprehension, 
vindicated a personal right in it. 

All this by way of arriving at a definition of faith. 
We are saved by faith. The beginning of the Chris- 
tian life is in getting a real apprehension of the great 
truth of the atonement, as it is written : " He that 
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." 
" Only believe." " He that believeth in the Son hath 
entered into life." " The just shall live by his faith." 
" Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." But what 
is faith ? or, what is it to believe in Christ ? 

I. It is not merely to have an intellectual apprehension 
of the fundamental truths of Christianity. A man may 



i88 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



consent to the truth of an objective dogma without 
in any profitable sense believing in it. 

I stand beside the manger and look into the face 
of the Christ-child; doubting; questioning; hearken- 
ing to the voice of Scripture, of the great multitudes 
of believers and of history in the procession of 
centuries since the beginning of the Christian Era. 
By this I am forced to yield an intellectual assent 
to the proposition that this child in the manger is the 
incarnate Son of God. I note the difficulties in the 
way, crying, " Great is the mystery of godliness ; 
God manifest in the flesh." And yet, by the over- 
whelming testimony in favor of this truth, I am 
compelled to assent to it. 

Then I come to Calvary and stand under the 
shadow of the cross ; here Jesus of Nazareth is dying. 
The rumbling of the earth, the strange darkness at 
high noon, the cry that pierced that darkness, Eloi\ 
JSloz, lama sabachthani, the voice of prophecy respect- 
ing this event, the testimony of that great multitude 
who assert that the heart of Jesus was broken under 
the burden of their sins, the tribute paid by all sub- 
sequent history to the unique importance of this 
tragedy, all force me to conclude that as this was no 
common man, so this was no ordinary death. The 
words of Rousseau are pressed in upon me as the 
conclusion of cold reason: "If Socrates died like a 
philosopher, then Jesus died like a God." 

And now I stand beside the open sepulchre. I test 
the story of the alleged miracle here by the rules of 
common evidence and am convinced. It is easier to 
assent to the miracle, than to believe that the 
universal Church of Jesus Christ has affixed its faith 
to a colossal falsehood during these nineteen centuries. 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



189 



" He was dead and is alive for evermore. He brake 
the bands of death, taking captivity captive, and hath 
ascended up on high to give gifts unto men." 

Here are three great truths of the Christian sys- 
tem : the incarnation, the atonement, and the resur- 
rection of Jesus. The test of orthodoxy is to believe 
in these fundamental facts. My intellect asserts 
them; I am orthodox ; but the devils also believe and 
tremble. We have not reached faith thus far. 

II. Nor is it to yield an emotional assent to the Chris- 
tian system. We may supplement our syllogisms 
with " Hosannahs " and " Hallelujahs " and still be far 
from the kingdom of God. The worst of men have 
been known to stain their Bibles with their tears. 
A troup of godless tourists, pausing in their travels 
at Ober-Ammergau, have gazed there upon the 
dramatic presentation of the great tragedy of the 
cross, and have been moved to passionate cries and 
sobs and then have gone their way to live again 
among the beggarly elements of this world. I stand 
in old Jerusalem with the multitude who crowned 
the man of Nazareth with thorns and robed him in 
ribald purple ; I see them beating him with scourges, 
spitting in his face, and deriding him ; I see them 
lead him beyond the gates with mad cries, "Crucify 
him ! crucify him ! " I am moved with an infinite 
indignation when they nail his hands and feet upon 
the cross. " Oh, this is the great crime of the ages! " 
I exclaim ; " Was there ever greater depth of infamous 
cruelty ? " My emotion is like that of the Saxon King 
who, when the missionary told him the story of 
Calvary, drew his sword in fiery anger, saying, " Had 
I been there with my brave men, we would have 
avenged him ! " 



190 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



Nay, further, it is not the crime alone or the la- 
mentable tragedy that affects me, but a realizing 
sense of the fact that Jesus, as the incarnate Son of 
God, coming forth as a knight errant for the deliver- 
ance of men from their sins, bears yonder upon his 
heart, like a great Atlas, the world's burden. He is 
tasting death for every man. O divine condescen- 
sion ! O infinite compassion ! O unspeakable love ! 

All this and yet I have not attained unto faith. 
Feeling is not believing. To weep is not to surren- 
der. The heart may throb to breaking and yet not 
practically grasp the saving power of the truth. 

III. Faith is the vital apprehension of Christ. It 
does not merely assent to the fact, nor merely weep 
over it ; it throws the heart wide open to this incar- 
nate Son of God and bids him come in and take pos- 
session. It says, " He loveth me and gave himself for 
me " ; and goes on to say, " He is my Saviour and 
my Friend." 

The best definition of faith that was ever given is 
in the object-lesson of the sacrament. To believe in 
the truth is to receive it as a man receives food, so 
that it shall enter into his life ; as it is written, "Ex- 
cept }'e eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son 
of Man, ye have no life in you." The bread which we 
eat is transformed into bone and sinew and blood ; 
nay, more, is transformed into thought and ambition 
and noble deed. We speak of bread, therefore, as the 
staff of life. Christ is the living Bread. In partaking 
of the bread upon the sacramental table we assert our 
faith in Jesus Christ in such a manner as that he is 
inextricably blended with our life. "We no longer 
live, but Christ liveth in us." 

On the upper deck of the steamship Elbe, which 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



191 



sailed from Bremen last Tuesday morning, a woman's 
eyes rested upon the life-boat ; she was impressed by 
its beautiful proportions, by its staunch construction 
and she said within herself, " In danger this would be 
a trustworthy craft." On that same day, later on, the 
skipper of the ship, standing beside the life-boat, told 
her how on the previous voyage a sailor had fallen 
overboard ; how that life-boat had been launched with 
all haste and breasting the waves had reached the 
strangling swimmer and saved him. She had previ- 
ously convinced herself that the life-boat was so built 
as to be trustworthy ; her heart now responded to 
that conviction, touched, as it was, by the tale the 
rescued sailor. On Wednesday morning the Elbe 
went down in the North Sea. That same woman, 
tossed about in the chill waters, seized hold of that 
life-boat ; the voice of one of the crew cried, 
" Thrust her off ! " but other manlier hands drew her 
into the boat and saved her. To-day her thought 
toward that life-boat is far beyond what it was or 
could have been before she committed her destinies 
to it. There is a sense in which that life-boat has 
become her own eternal possession : the story of her 
life is forever bound up with it. 

In the life of the disciple Thomas, there was prob- 
ably no moment when he did not believe as a matter 
of fact that Jesus was the very Son of God. He had 
listened to his sermons and was prepared to say, 
"Never man spake like this man." He had seen his 
miracles and they added confirmation to his conviction 
respecting the divineness of Jesus. But there came 
a time when his Lord, crucified and risen from the 
dead, stood before him, saying "Reach hither thy fin. 



192 



THE PRONOUN OF FAITH. 



gers and put them into these nail prints ; reach hither 
thy hand and thrust it into this wound in my side." 
Then Thomas believed, exclaiming with a conviction 
beyond that of mere intellect or emotion, "My Lord 
and my God ! " Thence forward the great truths 
which centred in Christ were his own ; his own by 
a personal appropriation ; interwoven with the very 
fabric of his being. To him to live was Christ. His 
life was hid with Christ in God. 



THE TABERNACLE. 



" Which was a figure for the time then present."— Heb. ix. q. 

I wish we might go backward along the path of 
thirty-four centuries and stand on Peer above the 
plains of Moab, just where Balaam stood when he 
exclaimed, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ; and 
thy tabernacles, O Israel ; as gardens by the river- 
side and as groves of lign aloes beside the waters." 
We are gazing down upon a scene of profound his- 
toric interest. Here are encamped the three millions 
of Israelites who have escaped from the bondage of 
Egypt and are now journeying toward the land of 
promise. As far as the eye can reach, mile upon 
mile, are tents gleaming in the sun. Observe the 
singularity of their arrangement. The encampment 
is an oblong square ; in its centre, an open space 
more than a mile across ; in the midst of that hollow 
square, the tabernacle, " a little spot enclosed by 
grace out of a dreary wilderness." Over it is a lu- 
minous cloud, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by 
night, the shekinah or " excellent glory of God." 

We are struck by the small proportions of this 
fabric ; the length of its open court is only one hun- 
dred and seventy-five feet and its breadth eighty- 
seven feet. It seems in the far distance a mere speck 
in the midst of the vast quadrangular array of tents. 
It is quite large enough, however, for its purpose, It 

(193) 



194 



THE TABERNACLE. 



was not intended to be a general auditorium, but a 
mere oracle — a meeting place for the priests, as the 
representatives of the people, with God. 

It is interesting to note that this "tent of meet- 
ing/' so slight in its dimensions, occupies a consider- 
able place in holy Scripture ; indeed, it occupies six 
times as much space as the story of the creation of 
the world. Nor is this without reason. God built 
the universal frame ; that was his affair. " Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? " 
But in the building of the tabernacle he made use of 
second causes and in its service the Levites were ap- 
pointed to be laborers together with him. There are 
some things which God keeps to himself. The fiat, 
"Let there be light," tells all that he cares to reveal 
to us. But when he wishes a golden candlestick to 
be made, he must needs be particular as to details. 
The creating of the sun was his affair ; the adorn- 
ment of the earthly sanctuary is ours. So with re- 
spect to certain of the great doctrines of our faith. 
You wish to know respecting the eternal decrees ; 
God has little to say. But if you ask the way of salva- 
tion, he will make it so plain by entering into the 
most minute particulars as to repentance and belief, 
that a wayfaring man though a fool need not err 
therein. The men who were concerned in the build- 
ing of the tabernacle were not left to their own de- 
vices, but were required to follow minutely the plans 
and specifications which were delivered to Moses in 
the mount. Post and curtain, cord and tassel, knops 
and flowers, lamps and snuffers, were all made after 
a divine pattern. So in respect to all our common 
duties, it is God's pleasure to help us to the very 



THE TABERNACLE. 



195 



utmost ; as it is written, "If any of you lack wisdom, 
let him ask of God and it shall be given him." 

We are impressed, also, by the simplicity of this 
fabric. God never made a Westminster Abbey or a 
Gothic cathedral. The court of the tabernacle in the 
distance, yonder, is enclosed in white linen curtains 
suspended from thorn-wood posts which rest in silver 
sockets. Here is simplicity itself ; and here is a sure 
token of its divineness. All God's works are as 
simple as they are majestic ; such as the mountains 
and the overarching skies. He would have our 
forms of worship of like character. " To what pur- 
pose is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the 
Lord ; I am full of burnt offerings and the fat of 
fed beasts. Your new moons and your Sabbaths and 
your solemn assemblies, I cannot away with them. 
Cease to do evil ; learn to do well. Come now, and 
let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." Our broad phylacteries, our long prayers, 
our tithes of mint, anise and cummin, our conspicuous 
alms thrown into the trumpet mouth of corban, give 
him no pleasure. He stands at Jacob's well, between 
the solemn pomp and circumstance of Moriah on the 
one hand and Gerizim on the other, and says, " The 
time cometh when neither in this mountain, nor yet 
at Jerusalem, ye shall worship God. God is a spirit: 
and they that worship him must worship him in 
spirit and in truth." 

This tabernacle of so slight dimensions and of 
such exceeding simplicity was the central fact in the 
whole economy of Israel. It was meet that it should 
stand in the centre of the encampment with all the 



196 



THE TABERNACLE. 



tents opening towards it ; for here was the seat of 
the judicial, legislative and executive power of the 
Theocracy. There are those who belittle the Church 
in our day, but the Church stands in the midst of 
history as the tabernacle stood in the centre of the 
Jewish camp. It is the one tremendous fact in civili- 
zation. It has ever been the dynamo of current 
events. It is not merely the rendezvous of God's 
people, but the great living organism through which 
they execute the divine purposes in the building up 
of the kingdom of heaven on earth. The world's 
progress has been parallel and co extensive with 
church history. No doubt God could have gotten 
along without the Church as he could have done 
without the tabernacle ; but it has been his pleasure 
to organize the Church, the antitype of the tabernacle, 
for the salvation of the world. It began with a little 
coterie of eleven men, all of the humbler class ; to- 
day it is a mighty fellowship reaching from the river 
unto the ends of the earth. Let us not speak dis- 
paragingly of the Church ; for, as its growth shows, 
it appeals to the best instincts and noblest aspirations 
of all right-thinking men. 

It is said that when the Cardinal Richelieu wished 
to build a magnificent palace, he selected the site of 
an ancient chateau where his ancestors had dwelt. 
The work of demolition began, but when the work- 
men had come to the inner chamber where the 
Cardinal himself had first seen the light and lain up- 
on his mother's breast, he ordered them to desist and 
bade the architect so alter the design of the new edi- 
fice as to adjust all its proportions to that birth-room. 
So has the great fabric of civilization, which is only 
another name for the kingdom of truth and righteous- 



THE TABERNACLE. 



197 



ness, been reared upon the earth. Its centre is the 
Church, the depository of the Ark of the Covenant, 
the source and fountain of all gracious influences 
among men. 

Let us come down from Peor now and approach 
the tabernacle. We pass along between the tents of 
the tribes of Israel until we come to the great open 
space, crossing which, we find ourselves at 

I. The door j a curtain of blue and purple and 
scarlet, hung upon four pillars. It speaks of Christ 
who said, " I am the door." Go round about this 
open court north and west and south and you will 
find no other. One door only, looking off toward the 
rising sun. "I am the door," said Jesus ; "no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me." There aremany 
systems of religion but there is only one body of 
truth ; so it is written, " There is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be 
saved." We draw this curtain and entering find our- 
selves in 

II. The open court ; and here are two objects of 
special interest, and two only : 

(1) The altar of burnt offering. It speaks of Jesus 
and of Justification by Faith. Its fire never goes out; 
the blood is always flowing over its brazen sides. 
The Israelite, who had sinned, brought a lamb for 
this altar and waited in suspense until he saw the 
smoke ascending, when he cried, " My sin is gone ! " 
It cannot be supposed that he attributed any saving 
virtue to the slain lamb ; he must have known that 
it was a figure of the Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world. 

There are those who take exception to a relig- 
ion of blood. It is revolting to them ; they would 



198 



THE TABERNACLE. 



have an aesthetic offering, mayhap of fruit and flowers; 
but therein they make the mistake of Cain, who 
brought of the first fruits of the field and garden ; 
but Abel offered, by faith, a more acceptable sacrifice 
in that he brought of the firstlings of the flock — by 
faith, in that he perceived afar off the glory of the 
• vicarious sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God. 
(2) The laver ; a great basin with brazen feet. 
Here the priests and Levites cleansed themselves be- 
fore they proceeded to their ministering. It speaks of 
Jesus and his great doctrine of regeneration ; of the 
washing of the waters of regeneration ; as he said, 
"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 
There are those who say, " I am not fit to come to 
Jesus now"; let them observe that the altar stands 
before the laver. The fitness after the sacrifice. No 
man ever yet was " fit " to come to Jesus ; a sense of 
fitness would indeed be an insuperable obstacle to 
his coming, for it would show an absence of convic- 
tion of sin. To the altar first and then to the laver. 

" Just as I am and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot ; 
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! " 

We come now to the tabernacle proper; a structure 
made of acacia boards, overlaid with gold and covered 
with sealskins. It is divided into two apartments ; 
the first called " The Holy Place " ; thirty feet long 
and fifteen feet wide ; and the second, just half as 
large, called "The Holiest of All." We are now 
standing before the curtain of this tabernacle ; we 
enter and find ourselves in 



THE TABERNACLE. 



III. The Holy Place. Here are three objects of 
special interest and only three : 

(1) On our right is the table of shew bread ; 
twelve loaves, one for each of the tribes of Israel. 
It speaks of Christ : "Your fathers did eat manna in 
the wilderness and are dead. I am that living bread 
which came down from heaven of which, if a man 
eat, he shall never hunger." Christ is our life ; "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son 
of Man, ye have no life in you." 

(2) On the left is the golden candlestick. It has 
seven branches which are fed with beaten oil from a 
great bowl in the centre. There are no windows in 
this apartment ; the only light-giver is this golden 
candlestick. It speaks of Christ who said, " I am the 
light of the world." It was because the world by 
wisdom knew not God, that he came to reveal him. 
He scatters the darkness of sin and ignorance, and 
the shadows that gather in the valley of death. 

(3) The golden altar of incense. The incense was 
made according to a divinely given rule. The rabbis 
say, to counterfeit this incense was death. The golden 
altar, also, speaks of Christ, of his eternal intercession 
for us. As the herbs and costly spices were bruised 
that they might yield their fragrance, so by his 
agony, being wounded and bruised for us, he made 
for himself an all-prevailing name. 

" Five bleeding wounds he bears, 

Received on Calvary. 
They pour effectual prayers ; 

They strongly plead for me. 
Forgive him, O forgive, they cry, 
Nor let that ransomed sinner die ! " 

It is said that when the high priest entered the 
Holy Place to make intercession for the worshipper, 



200 



THE TABERNACLE. 



who remained without, his safety and the success of 
his errand were made known by the tinkling of the 
silver bells upon th'e borders of his robe. In like 
manner are we assured of the prevailing power of the 
prayers of our great High Priest. Our visions of 
heavenly peace, our holy aspirations and resolute 
purposes, as well as the sweet promises that come to 
us from the oracles here and yonder, are the tinkling 
of the bells upon his robe. He ever liveth, he ever 
liveth, to make intercession for us. 

IV. We have now come to the Holiest of All. We 
may not enter in. The high priest alone is permitted 
once a year, on the great day of atonement, to pass 
within its sacred precincts. Overawed, we kneel be- 
fore the fine-twined curtain to present our supplica- 
tion. It is the day of the great sacrifice; off yonder 
on Calvary, the Christ is bearing our sins in his own 
body on the tree. His heart is breaking under the 
world's burden ; he dies in the midst of mockery and 
shame ; the darkness gathers about him ; the cry is 
heard, " My God ! my God ! Why hast thou for- 
saken me ! " He has reached the uttermost of his 
vicarious pain ; as it is written in our Creed, " He 
descended into hell." At length, with a loud voice, 
he cries, " It is finished ! " and the darkness begins 
to rise. At that instant, kneeling before the veil of 
the Holiest, I lift my eyes and behold a wondrous 
thing ; the veil is rent from the top to the bottom as 
if by a hand stretched down from above, and I look 
within upon the mysteries that no eye, save that of 
the high priest, has ever seen ! 

It is said that at the overthrow of Jerusalem the 
captain of the Roman army, moved with curiosity 
respecting the mysteries of the Jewish faith, which 



THE TABERNACLE. 



20I 



were represented to be hidden within this sacred 
chamber, lifted the veil of the Holiest while his guard 
waited without. A moment later they heard a burst 
of laughter and the words, " There is nothing here 
but a wooden chest." Nothing here ! Alas ! spirit- 
ual things must be spiritually discerned. We stand 
at Bethlehem and behold nothing but a mother with 
an infant in her arms. Nothing ? " Great is the 
mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh." 
We come to Calvary and see nothing but a man dying 
on the cross. Nothing but that ? 

44 There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

We enter Joseph's garden and behold nothing but an 
empty grave. Nothing but that? "Death is swallowed 
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, 
where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and 
the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God 
who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." The manger, the cross, the empty tomb : 
the incarnation, the atonement, and the resurrection. 
All these are nothing to carnal eyes, but to spiritual 
discernment they are the three tremendous verities of 
the Christian faith. " We preach Christ crucified ; 
to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks 
foolishness ; but to them that are saved, the wisdom 
and the power of God." 

The Ark of the Covenant — the " wooden chest " — 
speaks eloquently of Christ. Within it are the tables 
of the Law ; not those which Moses broke in sudden 
anger, but the unbroken tables which set forth the 
perfect obedience of the Lord Christ ; by the impu- 



202 



THE TABERNACLE. 



tation of that righteousness, we shall enter heaven's 
gate ; as it is written, " There is, therefore, now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. 
For what the law could not do in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the 
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in 
the flesh : that the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us." 

The golden cover of the ark was called the mercy- 
seat. To that mercy-seat, under the Old Economy, 
none but the high priest had access. A new and 
living way is opened unto us by the rending of this 
veil, the bruised body of Christ, so that we may enter 
into this place of privilege. 

" O may my hand forget her skill, 
My tongue be silent, cold and still, 
This throbbing heart forget to beat, 
If I forget the mercy-seat." 

I kneel no more without the Holiest of All. I 
pass within and cast myself down beside the ark 
with my face upon its golden cover sprinkled with 
blood. The wings of the cherubim are over me ; the 
cloudy presence, the " most excellent glory," envelops 
me. I am come boldly unto the throne of grace 
where all may come in Christ, and kneeling thus I 
hear a voice : " The Spirit and the bride say, Come. 
Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that 
is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." It is finished. The Old 
Economy is ended. Its shadows are scattered before 
the rising sun. Its secrets are disclosed. The veil is 
rent. The way into the Holiest is open. All may 
now become kings and priests unto God. 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 

" Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow ?"— Job xxxviii. 22. 

I am sorry for city people who never have known 
the delights of rural life. " God made the country, 
man made the town." What do they know about 
the singing birds and flowing brooks, the blooming 
fields and golden harvests ? What do they know 
about the joys of winter ; the glassy river, the tink- 
ling bells, the merry shout of children issuing from 
the school-house door into the pleasures of the falling 
snow? To us in the great metropolis a snow-storm 
means naught but unsightly heaps at the street cor- 
ners' waiting to be carted off : it suggests no more 
than a question of health and possibly another of 
honesty in the administration of municipal affairs. 

Let us stand for a little while under the falling 
flakes and take the lessons that come to us. The 
treasures of the snow ! Out of the mint of God up 
yonder falls this glorious wealth all stamped with 
his image and superscription. Inasmuch as snow 
was infrequent in the Holy Land there are not many 
references to it in Scripture ; yet enough for helpful 
suggestion in many ways. Out of this treasury we 
bring seven golden texts, to wit : 

I. '* The fool saith in his heart There is no God." 
The fool I catch a flake in my palm ; nay, not there, 
else its fragile beauty will die in an instant, but rather 

(203) 



204 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



on a velvet cushion and put it under a microscope. 
Now let the " fool " look and say again, " There is no 
God ! " Here is an epistle from somewhere asking as 
plainly as if pen and ink had written it, " Who made 
me ? " Did this miracle come by chance ? Nay, out 
of nothing, nothing comes. Now catch another 
snow-flake on this velvet cushion and a hundred more 
and a million more, for the air is filled with them ; 
and out of these we will construct our proposition. 
If you speak of chance then let us reason under the 
law of chances. How shall we get our first term ? 
By making a progression of products, thus: multiply 
your first flake by your second, the second by the 
third, and so on while the snow-flakes fall. Multiply 
until you have exhausted the last flake in the heavens, 
then multiply that product by the last snow-storm 
and so on until you have exhausted the last snow- 
flake that ever fell since the beginning of time. What 
have you ? A line of figures belting the globe again 
and again and again like parallels of latitude. Now 
having our first term let us proceed with the calcula- 
tion. It is a simple problem in proportion. As this 
line of figures is to one, so is the probability of a supreme 
intelligence to the hypothesis of chance or a fortuitous 
concourse of atoms. It is beginning to dawn upon us 
now why the good Book pronounces him to be a 
"fool " who says "There is no God." 

II. Our next golden text is this, "In wisdom hath 
he made them all." A close examination of these 
snow-flakes under the glass reveals the fact, (i) that 
every one is perfect, absolutely perfect ; and in this 
the snow-flake differs from every masterpiece of man. 
The thing we make may approximate nearer and 
nearer to perfection, but never reaches it. Put the 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



205 



finest lace under the glass and it looks like a fishing- 
net of jute; its fairy figure running zigzag like a 
worm fence. On the other hand the snow-flake grows 
finer and finer the more you magnify it. Man's best 
work is a chronometer which will vary possibly a 
second in a twelvemonth. Wonderful ! But if God 
were to run the planetary system by such a time- 
piece chaos would have ensued long ages ago. 
The sun is his chronometer. All his work is 
perfect, absolutely perfect. Perfection is the distin- 
guishing characteristic of a divine thing. (2) Still 
further we note an infinite variety in these flakes of 
snow. Des Cartes announced that he had discovered 
ninety-three various forms or patterns. The words 
had scarcely fallen from his lips before another de- 
clared that he had found nine hundred. Indeed there 
is no limit to their diversity ; it is fair to say that no 
two of them are precisely alike, just as no two leaves 
in Vallombrosa are alike, just as no two human faces 
are alike on all the earth. This infinite variety is 
also a distinguishing feature of the work of God. 
(3) But all these varied forms are patterned under 
a common law and under that law are uniform. How 
shall we account for this ? Chance ? Or has science 
otherwise explained it ? " Oh, the ancients in Job's 
time knew little about snow or any other natural 
phenomenon. Many things have been discovered 
since then. All this is explained." Ah, by whom ? 
What is snow? "Congealed vapor" But what is 
vapor and how congealed ? Go on with your expla- 
nation. Whence this law ? Law is usually supposed 
to suggest a law-giver. You ask us to believe in a 
law like this with all its marvellous manifestations 
and no one behind it ? You smile at our faith and 



2o6 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



call it credulity ; but here is a burden that our faith 
cannot bear ; it requires a greater credulity than ours 
to believe that all this merely happened. Go back as 
far as you can in your scientific researches and you 
will never reach the ultimate. You come to a curtain 
hanging before an inner chamber ; draw it and you 
stand in the Holiest of All. 

III. Our next golden text is this, "Zo, here is the 
hiding of his power." How feeble seem these fallen 
flakes. 

" Out of the bosom of the air, 

Out of the cloud-folds of his garment shaken ; 
Over the woodlands wild and bare, 
Over the harvest fields forsaken, 
Silent and soft and slow 
Falleth the snow." 

Yet here is God's dynamite. In this apparent weak- 
ness is the hiding of his strength. The flake that 
falls into the cleft of the rock, with a few more of its 
feeble kinsfolk, shall take hold of the roots of the 
everlasting mountain and tear them asunder. This 
is God's way of working. He builds his temple 
without the sound of hammer or of axe. The sun- 
shine, the atmosphere, the fallen rain — these are his 
calm potencies. You trample the snow-flakes under 
foot, the children play with them ; yet they have 
within them the possibility of great convulsion. Here 
are magazines of power. Men work amid demon- 
stration, the shouting of ten thousand voices, the 
booming of heavy artillery. God's power is quiet, 
constant, persistent, infinite, everywhere. So ubiqui- 
tous is his omnipotence that men have sometimes 
taken Force to be their god. When it was desired to 
blow a ledge of rocks out of New York harbor there 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



207 



were years of preparation ; digging of mines, placing 
of charges, laying of fuses ; then the city stood 
listening ; the explosion, the water spout, and it was 
done. God rides through the universe in his chariot 
of Almightiness and its ponderous wheels move as 
silently as the waving of a butterfly's wings. 

IV. Still another of the golden texts is, "He giveth 
his snow like wool." Rather like a covering of wool ; 
that is to say, a coverlet. The figure appeals to us all. 
We are back again in the trundle-bed and the dear 
mother has come to hear us say our prayer and then 
to arrange the coverlet and tuck us in. So the good 
God cares for all nature ; the seeds and roots ; the 
burrowing and hibernating creatures ; he covers 
them all over ; giving his snow like wool. O infinite 
love ! Shall he not much more care for you, O ye of 
little faith ? These snow-flakes are " feathers from 
the wing of the Almighty protection." He cares for 
us along the journey of life and when all is over and 
we lie down to our final rest, he still lays his coverlet 
above us. Out in the graveyard just now, as far as 
eye can see, are the mounds of the sleeping dead. 
He has given his snow like wool. So they abide the 
coming of the Lord's great day. 

V. Another of the golden texts is, "His raiment 
was while as snow." Here are three visions of the 
glorious One. Daniel saw him, when all the earth 
powers had vanished, approaching in a chariot of 
flame to take the seat of universal empire, while ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and 
lo! " His garment was white as snow." The chosen 
three went up with the Only Begotten of the Father 
into the Mount of Transfiguration, and while the 
cloud — "the most excellent glory" — folded them in, 



2o8 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



they saw him changed ; his face shining like the 
sun and his garments "white as no fuller on earth 
could whiten them." The aged dreamer in Patmos 
saw him in the midst of the golden candlestick 
clothed in a priestly garment down to his feet ; in 
his right hand seven stars ; his voice as the sound 
of many waters ; his countenance as the sun shineth 
in his strength ; and his head and his hairs were 
" white as snow." All this in token of his holiness. 
The great multitude around his throne are ever 
praising him and saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord 
God Almighty ! " Alas, then, what is to become of 
us, for we are as an unclean thing ? " Have mercy 
upon me, O God ! " cried David shamed and tortured 
by his accusing conscience, " Have mercy upon me 
according unto thy loving kindness, and according to 
the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my 
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my ini- 
quity and cleanse me from my sin ; for I acknow- 
ledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before 
me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean ; 
wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Is there 
an answer to that prayer ? Can the sin-defiled soul 
be washed and made whiter than snow ? "Aye ! 

VI. For here is another of the golden texts, "Conte 
now, and let us reaso?i together, saith the Lord : though 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
These falling flakes are messengers from the City of 
the Great King ; each of them bringing a white flag 
of truce with overtures of peace. 

What is the blackest thing in aL tne world ? Not 
jet, nor ebony ; not the raven's plume, nor the pupil 
of an Ethiop's eye. The blackest thing in all the 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW 



209 



world is said to be the blight at the heart of a flower 
when it is just stricken with death. So the blackest 
thing in the moral universe is sin at the centre of a 
soul, spreading corruption through the whole nature 
of man. 

What is the reddest thing in the world ? Not the 
glow of the sunrise or of the sunset ; not the heart 
of a ruby. The reddest thing in the world is the 
stream that flows from the fountain of life. Blood ; 
"the life is in the blood." The most vivid of all 
tragedies is that of Calvary. In all the moral uni- 
verse there is naught that so touches the heart of the 
race. 

What is the whitest thing in the world ? Not 
ivory, nor molten silver, nor alabaster ; not a lily 
painted on a spotless wall. The whitest thing in the 
world is the driven snow, for this is not superficial, 
but whiteness through and through. In all the 
moral universe there is nothing so glorious as the 
whiteness of holiness ; the fine linen, clean and 
white, which is the righteousness of saints. 

What is the greatest thing in the world ? Love ! 
Aye. Not our love to God, but God's love to us 
manifest in Jesus Christ. The love that holds the 
hyssop-branch of our frail faith and with it sprinkles 
the blood upon the soul defiled with the blackness of 
sin, until it becomes as white as the driven snow. 
This is the marvellous alchemy of grace. There is 
forgiveness with God. 

VII. And yet another of tne golden texts, "When 
the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was as when it 
snoweth in Salmon." Here is the picture : a mountain- 
side swept bare by the wind, the snow driven hither 
and thither upon it. What does it mean ? These 



2IO 



TREASURES OF THE SNOW. 



are not drifting masses of snow; these are the bones 
of the slain, bleached in the sun ; these are shields 
of the mighty; these are ermine cloaks, royal mantles 
cast away in flight. A mighty rout ! God's enemies 
have been put to shame. The great squadron has 
come forth riding on white horses and clothed in 
white linen, with one at their head arrayed in a 
garment dipped in blood — one who trod the wine- 
press alone in their behalf. Armageddon is over. 
There are shouts of victory in the distance. Babylon 
is fallen ! All hail the power of Jesus' name ! And 
here on Salmon naught but the drifting snow. 

Thanks be to God for this assurance of the glori- 
ous outcome. His Word is doing its work : "His 
word shall not return unto hi?n void, but shall be like the 
snow which cometh down from heaven ; it shall ac- 
complish that which he doth please and prosper in 
the thing whereto he sends it." In God's economy 
all things have their uses. Every snow-flake is under 
commission. So am I ; so are you. God help us to 
praise him in an implicit obedience like that of the 
forces of nature of which it is written : " Praise ye 
the Lord. Praise him from the heavens. Praise 
him from the earth. Ye monsters and all deeps ; ye 
fire and hail ; snow and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling 
his word ! " 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



" Keep yourselves in the love of God."— Jude 21. 

The man who wrote this brief epistle is almost 
unknown to us. (i) He was a half-brother of 
Jesus and had probably, like him, learned the trade 
of a carpenter. (2) He was called also Thaddaeus 
and Lebbaeus, perhaps to distinguish him from that 
other Jude who, by betraying his Lord, had made the 
name forever infamous. (3) But one fact is narrated 
of him in Scripture. In our Lord's last interview with 
his disciples the night before his crucifixion, he had 
said, " I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come 
to you and will manifest myself unto you," and Judas, 
not Iscariot, saith unto him, "Lord, how is it that 
thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the 
world ?" and Jesus answered and said, "If a man love 
me, he will keep my words and my Father will love 
him and we will come unto him and make our abode 
with him." (4) He was a plain man ; uneducated in 
the schools and unfamiliar with the arts of the 
rhetorician, but possessed of admirable common sense 
— the rarest of gifts. He wastes no words, rounds no 
periods, does not trouble himself about profundities or 
sublimities, but comes straight to the point. (5) He 
was loyal to "the truth once delivered to the saints," 
and by the same token he was a sincere hater of 

(211) 



212 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



schism and heresy. We may be certain he would not 
have written this epistle — called catholic, because 
addressed to the universal Church — unless circum- 
stances had demanded it. The Gnostics and Ebionites 
and Antinomians were carrying things with a high 
hand. Some one must rebuke them. Some one must 
admonish the Church to hold fast the form of sound 
words. If James, the pastor of the Jerusalem Church, 
had been here, he would have done it most effectively; 
but James had been slain with the sword. If Peter 
had been here, he would have sent forth a ringing 
manifesto ; but alas ! he too had suffered martyrdom. 
Or if John were here ; but John was an exile on a far 
off island in the iEgean Sea. So Jude must write. 
The fingers that were cramped by manual toil are 
adjusted to the stylus ; he writes briefly, clearly, 
without a wasted word. Here is the sum and sub- 
stance of his letter : Beloved, it was needful for me to 
w?'ite unto you, and exhort you that ye should earfiestly 
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the 
saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who 
turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and deny our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Woe unto them ! for they have gone 
in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of 
Balaam, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These 
are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with 
you, feeding themselves without fear : clouds they are 
without water, carried about of winds ; trees whose fruit 
withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the 
roots j raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
shame ; wandering, stars, to whom is reserved the blackness 
of darkness forever. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves 
on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep 
yourselves in the love of God. 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



213 



We have here the core of the whole matter. It is 
not easy to frame a definition of religion, but this 
writer succeeds in doing it. We are always in danger 
of forming partial views of a great subject. The Pil- 
grim Fathers, who landed on the coast of New Eng- 
land, said, " Here is a bleak and barren land ; a land 
of fierce storms and bitter winters, but not unsuitable 
to men in search of freedom to worship God." The 
Cavaliers, who colonized tidewater Virginia, said, 
" Here is a temperate clime ; warm enough and cool 
enough for such as do not object to working by 
proxy for their living." Ponce de Leon and his men, 
touching on the southern coast, said, " Here is the 
country of sunshine, Florida, the land of flowers. 
Here is the spot for a dolce far niente life." The Pil- 
grims, the Cavaliers and the Spaniards all were right 
and all were wrong. America is not to be described 
by a scrutiny of three harbors ; you must circumnavi- 
gate the continent. So of every truth. So of religion 
itself. It is a circle and we are ever in danger of be- 
ing satisfied with a segment of it. So it has come 
about that men, catching a glimpse of the great ver- 
ity, have cried, " We have found it ! " And so it has 
happened that each denomination of believers, know- 
ing somewhat of the truth, have been disposed to say, 
"The temple of the Lord are we." 

Let us note some of the errors which have been 
made in undertaking to define religion ; due in every 
case to a partial and fragmentary view of truth. 

First mistake: — religion is dogma. A truth becomes 
dogma to any mind the moment it is apprehended as 
proven beyond peradventure. A creed is a system of 
such truths. The malad)' of our age is credo-phobi 1. 
It is the fashion to say that creed is a matter of 



214 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



slight importance so long as we live well. But be- 
fore we fall in with that assertion let us be sure that 

we mean it. The grocer whom you patronize must 

have a creed ; he must believe that there are sixteen 
ounces to the pound, that sand is not sugar, that chic- 
ory is not coffee, and that honesty is the best policy. 
If he have not a code of principles — that is to say, a 
creed made up of such simple truths — you will not 

patronize him. You will not cast your vote for a 

candidate who has not a creed ; he must believe in 
an honest ballot, a sound currency, a just system of 
tariff, a wise adjustment of the rights of the individual 
states to those of the general government, and that 
vox populi is the nearest possible approach in political 
matters to vox Dei. If he be not prepared to say that 
he believes in these and similar truths, you set him 
down as a demagogue ; for the only difference be- 
tween a statesman and a clemagogue is that one be- 
lieves something and the other is whatever the cir- 
cumstances of the hour may make him. If you wish 

to cross the ocean, you will take ship with a captain 
who has a creed; who believes in sun and quadrant, 
in compass and chart; who believes that it is better 
for you to be over the water than under it; who be- 
lieves that two ships cannot sail in opposite directions 
over precisely the same course without getting into 
trouble. So in any department of common life, a 
man is untrustworthy unless he have a creed ; that is, 
unless he can say, Credo, I believe in something. 
Why then should a minister of the gospel, dealing in 
the great matters that touch our eternal destiny, be 
of a less positive character ? He surely should be 
able to lay his hand upon the great fundamentals of 
life and immortality and say without a doubt or mis- 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



giving, "I believe them." So, indeed, should any 
man who is travelling on to eternity. He should 
satisfy himself at once and beyond misgiving of the 
truth or falsity of the great propositions that centre 
in God. But a creed is not the sum total of religion ; 
it is a segment of the circle, but it is not the circle. 
We cannot be religious without a creed, but a creed 
alone will not make us so. 

Second mistake : — religion is a life ; that is to say, it 
is a creed crystallized, formulated, vivified in good 
works. There is a measure of truth in this state- 
ment; for faith without works is dead. The most of us 
can recall through the years the figure of some vener- 
able deacon who was scrupulous in his orthodoxy, 
irreproachable in his outward life, keeping the law, 
paying his honest debts, constant in his attendance 
on the sanctuary, ever ready to open the devotional 
meeting with prayer ; whose name was, nevertheless, 
a reproach because he seemed to have no bowels of 
compassion. The sufferings of the poor made no 
appeal to him ; in vain was his aid solicited for the 
improvement of the general weal. Let others feed 
the hungry and clothe the naked ; let others endow 
colleges and asylums ; let others attend to public 
enterprises ; it was enough for him to attend to his 
own personal character. He was an upright man, 
indeed, but a man without a life. God be praised 
that in these days we are discussing sociological 
problems ; asking how we may make the world 
better and men's lives sweeter and happier. Abu- 
ben- Adhem has come to the front, saying, ' Write me 
as one who loves his fellow-men." But good works 
are not all. They do not make a complete definition 
of religion ; " for by the deeds of the law shall no 



2l6 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



flesh be justified." The hand like the head is anecesr 
sary part of the body, but not the whole of it ; nor 
indeed the vital centre of it. 

Third mistake : — religion is a cult, or a particular 
form of worship. Rites and ceremonies are not to be 
belittled. The Church is of divine appointment. 
Its two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper, 
were instituted by Christ himself. No man who 
loves the bridegroom will disparage or ignore the 
bride ; our Lord himself honored the ritual of 
the house of God. But there is an immense differ- 
ence between • Churchianity and Christianity. The 
best churchmen of our Saviour's day were the Phari- 
sees, whose name was derived from a word signifying 
to separate, because they had separated themselves 
from their fellows by a claim of peculiar sanctity. 
What will you have ? Devotion ? Behold them 
making long prayers at the corners of the streets. 
Fasting ? Lo, they fast twice every week, though the 
law requires but a single fast in the year, to wit, on 
the great Day of Atonement. Beneficence ? They 
pay tithes of all that they get — far beyond the legal 
requirement — tithes of the garden herbs, mint, anise, 
and cummin. Devotion to the Scriptures ? See their 
broad phylacteries and the frontlets between their 
eyes inscribed with the sacred legend, " Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." And yet the 
severest denunciation pronounced by our Lord was 
against these high churchmen : " Woe unto you, 
Pharisees, hypocrites, how shall ye escape the dam- 
nation of hell ! " Of these men he said to his 
disciples, " Except your righteousness shall exceed 
theirs, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God." 
Let us not, therefore, depend upon our church mem- 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



2I 7 



bership alone. A man may be a member of the 
church in good and regular standing and still have 
no place in the Lamb's book of life. 

Fourth mistake : — religion is a sentiment. I would to 
God that we were all more tender of heart, more 
sensitive and quick to noble thought and purpose. 
The great truths are of such importance that our 
feelings should be profoundly stirred by them. 
"God!" "Calvary!" " The Judgment! " "Heaven!" 
" Hell ! " There are worlds of meaning in these 
simple words ; the very mention of each should thrill 
us instantly through and through. But while feeling 
is an important factor in religion, it must not be 
made to overshadow all. I remember a young man 
whose custom was, with pious regularity, to present 
himself at the anxious seat with the opening of " the 
protracted services " of each winter. It occurred 
always during the singing of the hymn, 

"Come to the Lord and seek salvation, 
Sound the praise of his dear name ; 
Glory, honor and redemption, 

Christ the Lord has come to reign ! " 

It is thirty years since he began and I am informed 
he is still doing it ; taking three months annually for 
revival and nine months for falling from grace. 
Religion is not chills and fever, but a wholesome 
steadfast life. It is not like a tress of purple alga 
torn asunder and swept by every wave and eddy, but 
a rock in mid ocean beaten in vain by storm and 
tempest. It is not sentiment but conviction. There 
is one thing better than feeling ; that is duty. Any 
man can go into battle when his blood runs hot in 
the excitement of the hour, but to go down to 
Balaklava with the Light Brigade "into the jaws of 



2l8 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



hell " in cold blood to obey a command, that is sublime. 
At the beginning of the month when our bills come 
in, we do not ask whether or no we feel the obliga- 
tion, but proceed to pay them like honest men. So 
let us attend to the affairs of our Christian life, pray- 
ing God to keep our hearts warm and eager and full 
of the enthusiasm of truth and righteousness, but 
resolute, with or without feeling, to do what duty 
shall require. 

Now then, having canvassed some of the partial 
views of religion, lei us approach its full definition in 
this injunction, " Keep yourselves in the love of God." It 
is written that a certain lawyer came to Jesus and 
said, "Good Rabbi, what is the first and greatest 
commandment ? " And Jesus answered, " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first 
and great commandment." If so, then all the energies 
of an earnest life should be directed toward two 
things ; to enter into this love and to abide in it. 

But how ? Can I force myself to love God ? the 
affections do not obey the command of the will. I 
cannot say, " I will love," as I say, "I will smite with 
my hand," or, "I will stamp with my foot." Never- 
theless the responsibility of loving God is upon me 
and my eternal life depends upon it. How do we 
awaken our emotions ? Not indeed by crying, 
"Awake ! " but by presenting to the mind the objects 
which arouse these emotions. I stimulate my 
sense of duty not by an effort of the will, but by 
gazing on the landscape — blue sky and verdant forest 
and silver river, — moving me to cry, " How wonder- 
ful ! " How do I stimulate my sense of indignation ? 
By pondering on the unspeakable Turk, his tyrannies 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



219 



and atrocities, until the fires flame within me. How do 
I arouse my sense of compassion ? Not by saying, 
"Now I will pity," but by climbing up the rickety 
stairways into the attics where the poor are enduring 
the pangs of hunger and the sick are tossing upon 
beds of languishing. "The eye affecteth the heart." 

So do I enkindle my love toward God ; by con- 
templating him. But where shall I behold God? 
In the person of Jesus Christ. It is to this very end 
that he has made himself manifest in the flesh, that 
we might behold him and love him. " How sayest 
thou, ' Show us the Father ' ? Believest thou not that I 
am in the Father and the Father in me ? " Go look 
on Jesus in the carpenter shop entering into all the 
pain and weariness of common toil, with chips and 
shavings around his feet, an honest workman. This is 
God. Go hear him as he preaches in Solomon's 
Porch the wonderful truths of the kingdom, touching 
with a bold hand, as never did human philosopher, 
all the great problems that reach out into the endless 
life, making our pathway as clear as day. This is 
God. Go follow him in the thoroughfares ; see 
along the way the couches whereon the sick are lying 
and mark how he heals them — opening the blind 
eyes, wiping away the leper's spots and making the 
deserts of life rejoice and blossom as the rose. This 
is God. Go up to Calvary and see him dying there, 
bearing the world's sin upon his breaking heart. 
See the deep darkness closing in around him and hark 
to his cry, as bearing our penalty he descends into 
hell for us, " My God ! my God ! Why hast thou for- 
saken me ? " Wounded for our transgressions, bruised 
for our iniquities, that by his stripes we might be 
healed. This is God. Look yonder where he stands 



220 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



on the right hand of the infinite Majesty, lifting his 
pierced hands in our behalf ; for he ever liveth to 
make intercession for us. This is God. 

O friends ! the trouble is, the world is too much 
with us. We dwell amid its cares and pleasures and 
rarely turn aside to look toward the high place where 
he dwelleth. How can we complain of lack of love, 
if we neglect to look upon his face ; if we care not to 
see the glory of the Infinite as it is revealed in the 
face of Jesus Christ ? 

Behold the beginning and the midst and the end 
of the whole matter : Love God. All else must 
follow. It is like the commerce that is constantly 
going on between the sea and clouds ; the ascending 
vapors and the descending dews and rains are all 
obedient to the law of gravity. It fills the fountain 
to slake the traveller's thirst ; it waters the field to 
satisfy the world's hunger ; it fills the rivers to float 
the ships of the nations. In like manner all noble 
purposes and all holy aspirations are under the do- 
minion of love toward God. If we love him, our 
creed will follow ; for we shall believe whatever he 
says. If we love him, we shall not fall short of the 
good works of a useful life ; for we shall tread 
closely in the footsteps of him who went about doing 
good. If we love him, we shall honor his church ; 
because the church is the bride of God. If we love 
him, our hearts will thrill in response to all the great 
verities which centre in him. 

The word of Jesus addressed to his wayward 
friend, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" 
had in it all the questions of all the catechisms of 
the universal church. And the thrice-given answer 
of Peter, " Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," 



WHAT IS RELIGION ? 



221 



had in it all true systems of theology from the begin- 
ning until now. It's love that makes the world go 
round ; the love of good men for the great Father, out 
of which proceeds the love of the universal brother- 
hood, has in it the potency of all faith and character. 
If we apprehend this, we shall come to know finally 
what this means, " Now abideth faith, hope, love ; 
but the greatest of these is love." And that other 
saying also, " Love is the fulfilling of the law." 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH.* 

"And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the Lord 
hath deliVered Sisera into thine hand : is not the Lord gone out before 
thee? "—Judges iv. 14. 

The importance of the Fourth Commandment is 
manifest in its opening word, " Remember." This 
suggests the danger of forgetting. It is a curious 
fact, that because of the perverseness of human nature, 
matters of the supremest moment are most likely to 
escape our thought. A peasant in the Vale of Cha- 
mounix will remember when to milk his cows and 
set his curds more easily than when to say his pater- 
nosters ; his eyes are more constantly fixed on his 
dairy than on the everlasting mountains which encir- 
cle him. 

It is noteworthy that the two most important facts 
in our religion are emphasized by " signs." (1) The 
greatest of doctrinal truths is the vicarious death of 
Christ, and this is kept before the mind of the univer- 
sal Church by the Eucharist; "Do this," said Jesus, 
"in remembrance of me." (2) The greatest of ethical 
facts is the duty of Sabbath observance. No institu- 
tion in the world is more important to the welfare of 
the race. It rests upon a double sanction: God's 
cessation from work at the close of creation — as it is 

* This sermon was delivered, by request, at the first public meeting of the 
Woman's National Sabbath Alliance. 

(222) 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



223 



written, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and 
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day: wherefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath 
day and hallowed it " ; — and on the divine rest at the 
close of the great redemptive work when Jesus in his 
resurrection triumphed over death and hell. The 
Fourth Commandment is repeatedly called a " sign "; 
that is to say, the token of a covenant which God 
made with his people, In this covenant he has dis- 
tinctly said that he will overthrow the nation which 
refuses to keep the Holy Day, and has promised, per 
contra. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sab- 
bath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and 
call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, hon- 
ourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 
thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high 
places of the earth." 

The age through which we are passing is charac- 
terized by an almost universal contempt for the past. 
"Ring out the old, ring in the new." It is enough to 
say of anything that it is " traditional," handed down 
through the years, in order to expose it to derision. 
Everybody knows what is held in certain quarters as 
to the traditional view of the inspiration of Scrip- 
ture; that view being that the Scripture is the inerrant 
Word of God. We hear much also in contemptuous 
vein of the traditional view of the Atonement; that 
view being that Jesus took our sins in his own body 
on the tree, bearing the shame, the bondage and the 
penalty in such a vicarious manner that by his stripes 
we are healed. 

So as to the traditional view of Sabbath ob- 



224 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



servance. The Puritan Sabbath ! How the average 
man derides it, seeing only the dark and melancholy 
side of a character that was braced against the 
storms of the fiercest tyranny and persecution the 
world ever knew. No men are perfect, and surely the 
Puritans were not ; but even in the manner of their 
keeping of the Sabbath there is not a little that we 
might copy with advantage: the family altar, the 
sweet psalmody, the uplifted faces of quaint chil- 
dren who hearkened with a simple, reverent faith 
to the heroic tales of Scripture, the holy hours of 
meditation and communion with the Most High. Is 
it not just possible that in our reaction from those 
over-strenuous days, we are getting too far the 
other way ? In any case it will do us no harm 
to pause and reflect. We cannot be too careful as to 
a matter so closely touching our spiritual welfare and 
destiny. We cannot afford to make any mistake in 
our observance of the Sabbath in which God asserts 
his property right, saying, "The seventh day is the 
Sabbath of the Lord thy God." 

I pause here to pay a momentary tribute to the 
American Sabbath Union. It has never obtruded 
itself upon the public gaze, but in all movements, 
looking toward the enactment and enforcement of 
salutary laws as well as in the creating and fos- 
tering of a just public sentiment, it has done valiant 
service. A step forward is now proposed. The wo- 
men of our country are to unite in an organized effort 
for the preservation of the Lord's Day. It is a move- 
ment of vast promise. We may not, perhaps, admit 
that Adam Clarke found the precise mathematical 
ratio when he said, " One woman is worth seven and 
one-half men " ; but sure it is that women can do 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 225 

some things better than men and can in all things 
lend valuable aid and comfort. 

It was a great day for Israel when Deborah left the 
shadow of the palm-tree, where she sat in judgment, 
and went northward to summon Barak to the defence 
of his people. For twenty weary years, Jabin, the 
king of Canaan, had oppressed them. He had nine 
hundred chariots of iron. The name of Sisera, his 
commander-in chief, was one to be spoken in a 
whisper, — a brave, bloody man. The courage of the 
Israelites had all oozed out. Then up rose Deborah, 
a mother in Israel. The battle was fought in the 
plain of Esdraelon. The song was sung upon the 
heights : " The stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera. The river Kishon swept them away, that 
ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast 
trodden down strength!" Let us hope and pray that 
the rallying of the women of the Church in behalf of 
Sabbath observance may be followed by a like tri- 
umphant song. 

How can the American woman make her power 
felt in arresting the prevalent sins of Sabbath 
desecration and promoting the observance of that 
Holy Day ? 

I. By her influence at home. Here is woman's coign 
of vantage. "The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the 
world." If there is a due regard for the Sabbath in 
domestic life, the rest will take care of itself. For 
home is the fountain from which flow forth all the 
streams of social and civil life. 

(1) It is for woman to say whether there shall be 
a family altar or not. I have rarely stood upon a 
more impressive spot than just inside the threshold 
of the straw- thatched cottage at Alloway, for it was 



226 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



here in the simple beauty of a peasant's home that 
Robert Burns received the inspiration of "The Cot- 
ter's Saturday Night." 

" The cheerful supper done, wi' serious face 

They round the ingle form a circle wide ; 
The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 

The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride. 
They chant their artless notes in simple guise ; 

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim : 
Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise, 

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name. 

" Then kneeling down, to Heaven's eternal King, 

The saint, the father, and the husband prays : 
Hope ' springs exulting on triumphant wing,' 

That thus they all shall meet in future days : 
There ever bask in uncreated rays, 

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, 
Together hymning their Creator's praise, 

In such society, yet still more dear, 
Where circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. 

" From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad : 
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
An honest man's the noblest work of God." 

(2) It is for women to say whether secular work 
shall be suspended in the home-life or not. It is 
worth while to remember the emphasis which is put 
upon this matter in the Fourth Commandment: "In 
it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid ser- 
vant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within 
thy gates." What is this ? Nor thy maid servant. Do 
our Christian women sometimes forget that God has 
laid this injunction upon them ? No work in the home 
on the Sabbath save the work of necessity or mercy. 
Artillerymen say that there are periods in a prolonged 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



227 



battle when the firing must cease. The battery must 
rest, that the guns may cool; and time must be given 
also, in the midst of the roar and danger, for the lift- 
ing of the smoke, that the gunners may take aim. This 
is the purpose of the Sabbath, to give the needed rest 
in preparation for the renewed toil of the secular days. 

(3) It is for the women to say whether the Sun- 
day newspaper shall be the domestic oracle or not. 
Is this a little matter ? Not so ! It is the head and 
front of all the offending. " Take us the foxes, the 
little foxes, that spoil the vines." It is the Sun- 
day newspaper that opens the door for the entering 
in of all Sabbath desecration. The one reason 
which is given for its publication, to wit, that we 
may keep apace with the world, is the supreme rea- 
son for rejecting it. The divine purpose in establish- 
ing the Sabbath was to give the people an opportunity 
of getting out of the world and away from it. It is a 
call to the soul to come up out of the mists of the 
lower valleys into the clear atmosphere with God. 

(4) It is for the women to say whether the next 
generation shall be a generation of Sabbath observers 
or not. They may not be able to transform the lives of 
their fathers and husbands, or to prevent them from 
balancing their ledgers and reading the secular papers 
on the Holy Day. But if they are true to their re- 
sponsibilities, they can cause that matters shall be 
different a quarter of a century from now. Lord 
Shaftesbury said, " You want a new generation of 
men and women ; you can have it by training up a 
new generation of children." As the twig is bent, 
the tree is inclined. The boy is father of the man. 

II. Her influence in society. Here woman reigns 
supreme. She makes the customs of social life. She 



228 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



determines what its culture, its vices, its marriages and 
divorces, its scandals and dissipations shall be. She 
decides whether its womanly ideal shall be Queen 
Esther or Martha Washington or Anne Hathaway or 
Trilby. Just now we hear much of social functions 
on the Sabbath, of literary conversations and recep- 
tions and musicales. And the habit of Sabbath visi- 
tation seems to be growing more and more prevalent, 
even in Christian homes. If this is a true report, then 
it is because our Christian women have permitted it. 

Let us at this point lay down the proposition that 
there is lawfully no such thing as social life, in the gener- 
al acceptation of that phrase, on the Lord's Day. Any 
attempt to create such an order of things is sure to 
be followed by social corruption. The Germans have 
found it so. In their country, the Sabbath is the 
great day for music and literary converse and dra- 
matic presentations. And what is the result? The 
Sabbath, which was intended for the moral and spir- 
itual betterment of men, is a very plague spot in the 
German civilization. The story was all told by Prof. 
Roscher, a distinguished scientist, who recently in an 
analysis of a statistical report showed the curious 
fact that the great majority of women who commit 
suicide, do so on Sunday, while the majority of men 
who take their lives, do it on Monday. How is this 
fact accounted for ? On Sunday when the beer gar- 
dens and the music-halls and the theatres are all 
open, the women, in the absence of their husbands, 
are left to bear alone the weary cares of the home- 
life ; and, lacking the sympathy of those who at the 
altar promised to love, honor and protect them, they 
find life not worth living. The men, on the other 
hand, awake on Monday morning to loathe themselves 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 229 

for the dissipations of the previous day, and this is 
their hour for the desperate deed. And despite this 
showing there are people who prate about the glories 
of the German Sabbath! 

The social life of God's people is in connection 
with the sanctuary service. " Thither the tribes go 
up." It is a goodly fellowship. " As iron sharpen- 
eth iron, so a man sharpeneth the face of his friend." 
"Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian 
love." Does this seem to give a melancholy aspect 
to the Holy Day ? God forbid. Why should it be 
esteemed a melancholy thing to spend the hours in 
holy aspiration or in converse respecting the great 
truths and problems that reach out into the eternal 
ages. If this seems melancholy, it can only be to 
such as are averse to the noblest and best ; to such 
as are wedded to the earth and are by that token the 
more in need of the uplift of the Holy Day. 

III. In business life. The mind of the Lord is 
very clear as to secular work on the Holy Day. The 
stoning of the man who gathered sticks on the Sab- 
bath was intended to emphasize at the very begin- 
ning of the Theocracy the seriousness of the breach 
of the Fourth Commandment at this point. Of the 
same purport was the stern admonition of Nehemiah 
addressed to those who sold their commodities in the 
market places of Jerusalem on the Lord s Day. It 
was in vain that he closed the city against them ; for 
they continued to bring fish and grapes and figs and 
garden vegetables which they offered for sale outside 
the gates. He then drove them away saying, " If ye 
return, I will lay hands upon you." All this would 
have been unnecessary, however, had the women of 
Jerusalem assumed a proper attitude toward these 



23° 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



hucksters.* It was for them to say whether the market- 
ing necessary for their domestic life, should be done 
upon the Sabbath or not. They could have arrested 
the abuse, had they said to these market-men, " If you 
continue to offer your wares on the Sabbath, we will 
not patronize you on that or any other day." 

If any of the important business houses of New 
York are open on the Sabbath, it is because the 
women choose to have them so. But, you say, the rep- 
utable shops are all closed on the Lord's Day. Not so. 
It is true, the doors are shut and bolted, but the wares 
within are exposed to public inspection through the 
columns of the Sunday newspaper. You read these 
advertisements at your leisure in your homes, and on 
Monday betake yourselves to the bargain counter. 
It is respectfully submitted that such establishments 
as these are in fact doing a splendid business on Sun- 
day ; indeed the very best business of the entire week; 
and you excellent women are parties to it. What 
shall be done ? Patronize the merchants who honor 
the Sabbath. There are some who do not advertise 
on that day. Lend them your countenance and sup- 
port. If one-tenth of the Christian women of New 
York were to take this position, true to their con- 
sciences and Christian principles, it is probable that 
this particular breach of the Sabbath would come to 
an end. "But this would be a boycott." So be it. 
There is indeed a divine boycott put upon all evil 
things. We are commanded to encourage the right- 
eous in their obedience, and as for those who habit- 

* A considerable number of the market-men of New York have recently- 
sent to their patrons a request that raw oysters might not be served as a dinner 
course on the Sabbath-day ; saying that, if house-keepers would generally 
assent to this slight request, a large force of market-men, who are now em- 
ployed in looking after this branch of the business, might enjoy their Sabbath 
rest. It would appear as if no Christian woman could hesitate a moment in 
such a matter. 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



23I 



ually offend the divine law, " He that giveth him God- 
speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." 

IV. Jn politics. Here woman is the power behind 
the throne. In Plutarch's life of Cicero he says, " The 
good wife Terentia had her ambitions and, as Cicero 
admits, took a far greater share with him in politics 
than she permitted him to have in domestic affairs." 
This is generally true I imagine, and if not, it ought 
to be. 

We may differ as to the desirableness of female 
suffrage ; but we shall probably all agree that it is part 
of a wife's business to see that her husband votes the 
right ticket and lends his influence to good govern- 
ment. A week ago to-day the fifty-third Congress 
closed its session. Far into the holy Sabbath, which 
from the beginning of our government has been re- 
garded as dies non, these legislators sat in God-defying 
counsel. It was meet that a Congress which has 
been so generally contemned by all parties for its 
folly and impotency, should thus end its career in a 
flagrant misdemeanor. There was a grim appropriate- 
ness in the burst of laughter which greeted the mes- 
sage of the President congratulating them on the 
cessation of their labors. And never did the Doxol- 
ogy meet with a more popular echo than when, as 
the gavel fell, the reporters in the gallery sang : 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 
Praise Him all creatures here below." 

In a similar session of congress some years ago an old 
man of reverent aspect arose in the visitor's gallery 
and said, "Ye are committing an offence against the 
great Jehovah in thus breaking his Holy Day. The 
wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations 
that forget God!" 



232 WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 

It is in the power of the great multitude of Chris- 
tian women in America to prevent the recurrence of 
this and similar transgressions against the divine law. 
Let them use their utmost influence to prevent the 
re-election of Congressmen who have been blame- 
worthy in this matter. It need scarcely be said that 
the women need not wait for their own enfranchise- 
ment to accomplish this. Let us remember what 
Cato said and act accordingly : " All men naturally 
govern the women ; we Romans govern all men ; and 
our wives govern us." 

V. In the church. The great majority of church 
members are women — just as a far greater majority 
in our jails and penitentiaries are men ; and it is the 
influential majority in both cases. It is obvious, there- 
fore, that the moral tone of the Church is very much 
what the women choose to make it. 

It is an old proverb, " Like priests, like people "; 
but this will read equally well the other way. Min- 
isters are but human and their people must needs in- 
fluence them. The Mayor of New York City, in de- 
fending his advocacy of the Sunday saloon, has de- 
clared that more than fifty ministers have written to 
signify their agreement with him. Of course we may 
not presume to question the truth of this statement. 
We are left then to believe, that there are more than 
fifty men in the pulpits of New York City in solemn 
covenant with God to observe his law and advocate 
its inviolability, who have declared themselves in favor 
of the opening of dram-shops on the Lord's Day. 
The thing seems incredible, but we are bound to ac- 
cept it. What then ? Will you Christian women 
consent to sit under the teaching of such men ? If 
the trumpet give an uncertain sound on the Sabbath 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



2 33 



question, or on any other great questions of public 
morality, what shall the righteous do ? 

It devolves upon our Christian women also to see 
that the right sort of instruction is given in our Sun- 
day-schools. Alas, that we should be willing to farm 
out the spiritual education of our sons and daughters 
to persons of whose influence we seldom make in- 
quiry. It has been said that the first four years of a 
child's life are more important than the four years 
spent at college. If you wish to send your child to a 
kindergarten, you insist that the teacher shall present 
credentials. How much more important that you 
should be informed as to the efficiency of the Sunday- 
school teacher, who has to do with the great problems 
that reach out into the endless life. 

You may be immensely influential by your prayers 
for those who are appointed to minister in spiritual 
things. Lyman Beecher tells of an old woman in his 
congregation, who, laid aside from the common duties 
of an active life, informed him that during the 
services of the sanctuary she busied herself contin- 
uously in prayer for him. As he preached, his eyes 
would rest upon her; her lips were moving; he knew 
that she was presenting his name before the throne 
of the heavenly grace; it was an immeasurable re- 
straint put upon him. The weakest saint may thus 
become a mighty factor in the affairs of the Church. 
If ministers, elders, teachers, people, go wrong, the 
probability is that you personally are, in a measure, 
to blame for it. 

I hail, therefore, as a good omen, this organization 
of Christian women to secure the Sabbath rest. The 
old Knickerbocker Church has a motto, Een dracht 
maakt macht ; "In union there is strength." But 



234 



WOMAN AND THE SABBATH. 



better still and more literally, "A long pull, a strong 
pull and a pull all together." That way lies victory in 
every reform movement. It was a great day for re- 
form in England under Charles I. when Ann Stugg, 
the brewer's wife, appeared at the door of the House 
of Commons leading a long procession of women. 
Her excuse for such forwardness was in these words: 
"It may be thought strange, sir, that we show our- 
selves here; but I pray you remember that Christ 
purchased us at as dear a rate as our brother men, 
and He requireth the same obedience from us." It 
was a great day for missions when the good women 
of our churches banded themselves together in an- 
swer to the cry for help from the Zenanas in far-dis- 
tant lands. It was a great day for the temperance 
reform when the women marched about the streets of 
the Ohio towns in a crusade against the dram-shops, 
giving rise to that splendid organization, the Women's 
Christian Temperance Union. It will surely prove to 
have been a great day for the Sabbath reform when 
the women came together in this Sabbath Alliance. 

God bless these ministering women and enable 
them in co-operation in other kindred organizations, 
to arrest the desecration of the American Sabbath and 
to give a new significance to that rich promise: "If 
thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing 
thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a 
delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt 
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord: and I 
will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the 
earth." 



THE PURPLE CUP. 

"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me : nevertheless not as I 
will, but as thou wilt." — Matt. xxvi. 39. 

It was the last night of our Lord's ministry on 
earth — " that dark, that doleful night, when powers 
of earth and hell arose against the Son of God's de- 
light." The last interview in the upper chamber was 
over ; the benediction pronounced, " Peace I leave 
with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the world 
giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid " ; the farewell said, 
" Arise, let us go hence." They came down the outer 
stairway and passed along the silent street — one 
after another of the disciples leaving the little com- 
pany, until three only were left with Jesus — out 
through the gateway across the ford of the Kidron, 
upward along the slope of Olivet until they reached 
Gethsemane. ''My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death," said the Master ; " tarry ye here 
and watch, while I go yonder." He must needs be 
alone in his great agony : for this is that knight- 
errant who was seen approaching on the hills ot 
Edom with garments dyed in the treading of the 
wine-press. Being a man, he longed for sympathy ; 
wherefore he said, " Tarry ye here and watch." 
In an hour like that there is inexpressible strength in 

(235) 



236 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



the mere thought of the near presence of another 
man. Nay, in most lives there are seasons of such 
extreme loneliness that comfort comes from the 
sound of a dog's feet pattering along the dark path 
beside us. 

The garden here referred to is about one-half 
mile out from Jerusalem. It is an enclosure of per- 
haps seventy paces around. Its general features are 
the same as nineteen hundred years ago ; the larger 
part of the olive grove, however, was cut down by 
Titus in the siege of Jerusalem ; there are still eight 
gnarled and twisted giants, under whose shadow 
travellers sit and recall the story of the Lord's pas- 
sion. To the west lies the Holy City, just beyond the 
dark ravine through which the brook Kidron goes 
rippling on to the Dead Sea. The garden is now in 
charge of a brotherhood of Franciscan monks, who, 
from their flower garden, will pluck for you, for a 
franc, a bunch of roses red as blood. 

Let us go and stand at the gateway of this gar- 
den. Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Our 
Lord is agonizing in prayer : "O my Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me ! " — as if a stern 
hand were actually pressing to his lips a goblet, from 
which he shrank with fear and trembling. Let us 
gaze upon this purple cup. We may not fathom its 
full meaning, for it suggests truths which stretch far 
beyond all human gaze. It is like the legendary 
ring, which lay upon the ground inviting a child's 
hand to lift it ; but if you tried, lo ! it was not a ring, 
but the first link of a chain that girdled the earth. 

I. We are standing here face to face with the mys- 
tery of pain. The cry of the Master is one wave of 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



237 



the boundless sea of sorrows ever sobbing on the 
shore of human life. Hallam says, "The deepest 
thing in human experience is pain." It is indeed a 
great mystery. At this moment there are thou- 
sands languishing on beds of fever, little children 
whose limbs are twisted with anguish, men and 
women groaning and shrieking. Why must this be ? 
It is the common lot. These are the ills that flesh is 
heir to. Our Lord would not have been a perfect 
man had he not entered into this common lot. He 
took not on him the nature of angels, but of men. 
He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 
" It became him, for whom are all things, and by 
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect 
through sufferings." 

We may not understand the mystery, but we can 
get a mighty strength and consolation from the 
thought that the captain of our salvation, having 
himself suffered, can be touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities. He is able to sympathize with us. When 
Lord Nelson was wounded at the battle of the Nile, 
they carried him below to the cock-pit, and the sur- 
geons, who were ministering to the other wounded, 
at once left the decks and came to him. He said, 
" Go to your work ; I'll take my turn with my brave 
fellows." So it was with Jesus ; he took his turn 
with us. 

" . . . Q Christ, come tenderly, 
By thy forsaken sonship in the red 
Wine-press; by the wilderness outspread, 
And the lone garden where thine agony 
Fell bloody from thy brow — by all those 
Permitted desolations, comfort mine!" 



2 3 8 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



II. We are facing, also, the great problem of temptation. 
Here, too, is mystery. It is suggested to those who 
are just now concerned in the vain investigation of 
psychic force and psychic phenomena, that they ex- 
plain, if possible, the influence of the unseen power 
of evil on human souls — the leering devil, the "toad 
squat at the ear of Eve." That were difficult enough ; 
but here is a greater problem still : How could he be 
tempted, in whom there was no evil ? How could 
there be a hand-clasp, when the hand that was reached 
out of the darkness found naught to meet it ? 

Our Lord, on leaving the upper chamber, said, 
" The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing 
in me." It is a mistake to think that his temptation 
was limited to the forty days in the wilderness ; all 
along the way the adversary beset him, ever seek- 
ing to allure him from the pathway leading to the 
cross. 

The sorest temptation that ever comes to man, is 
not that which seduces him into a common vice, but 
rather that which moves him to shirk his duty. It is 
so easy to yield, and so fatal. At this point also our 
Lord is our brother, " For in that he himself has 
suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them 
that are tempted." He reached the uttermost limit. 
The question presented to him by the adversary was 
whether he would please himself or, by the anguish of 
the cross, save the world. It was the same question 
that comes to the engineer when he sees that the 
bridge has gone down and scores of lives depend 
upon his faithfulness ; shall he leap, or stand at his 
post ? It is the same that comes to the captain when 
his ship is reeling, and the passengers are crying for 
help, and the life-boat is launched ; shall he betake 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



239 



himself to the boat, or stand at his post looking to 
the safety of all ? It is the same that comes to every 
man : "Shall I look to my own comfort, shall I live 
for self-pleasing and self-aggrandizement, or shall I 
hearken to the universal need and do my utmost to 
relieve it ? " 

In the hour of that fierce Waterloo when the worse 
contends with the better reason, the higher nature 
against the lower, love against selfishness, lo ! there 
is a mighty helper who stands by. The thing that 
amazed the king of Babylon when he looked into the 
fiery furnace and saw beside the three brave youths 
a fourth figure like unto the Son of God, is ever hap- 
pening. Here is the promise: "When thou goest 
through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through 
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ; when thou 
walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned ; 
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am 
the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Sav- 
iour." 

III. In this cup was, also, the bitterness of death, O 
grim monster, who does not fear thee ? The cold 
embrace, the fluttering pulse, the dimming eye. The 
followers of Mohammed are fond of claiming an utter 
fearlessness of death, holding that a man's time is 
written on his forehead, and there is no power that 
can resist it. Yet when the plague broke out at 
Medina, and when the priests were fleeing, they ex- 
cused themselves by saying, " It is true that Allah 
has ordained death, but owing to our unworthiness 
we feel moved to decline the divine dispensation." 
Our Lord being a perfect man and in all points such 
as we are, was moved by this common fear. He fore- 
saw moreover, the bitter accessories of his death ; 



240 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



the treachery, the loneliness, the cross, the nails, the 
long hours of fever, the gangrene, the breaking heart. 
Was it strange that he dreaded it ? 

It is a comfort to feel that even in this weakness 
of fear he can sympathize with us. It is an added 
comfort to know that in our death his companionship 
will be our strong support. How many a soul has 
passed along the journey saying, " Yea, though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
no evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, 
they comfort me." By his death our death is robbed 
of its chiefest pain. As Queen Eleanor, when her 
royal husband had been pierced by a poisoned arrow, 
sucked the virus from the wound, so, since Jesus 
drank this cup, death can never be the same to us. 
"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is 
the law ; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

But there was something more than death in this 
cup ; or else many a martyr has faced his last agony 
more heroically than this Son of Man. John Brad- 
ford, embracing the stake, said, " I go in a chariot of 
fire, to have supper with my Lord to-night." Alice 
Driver, kissing a chain about her neck, " This is a 
goodly neckerchief ; the Lord be praised for it ! " 
Castilia Rupea, who was hurled from a precipice, 
cried out, " Ye throw my body from the steep hill, 
but my soul shall mount up on eagle's wings ! " Dr. 
Taylor, on his way to die at Hadley, said exultingly, 
" There are but two more stiles, and I shall be at my 
Father's house." Latimer, when the fagots were 
kindled about him, said to his comrade at the neigh- 
boring stake, " Be of good cheer ; we light a candle 
this day in England, which shall never be extin- 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



241 



guished." O what multitudes have looked death in 
the face — death under the gleaming axe, death in the 
arena, death among the fagots, death with all the 
tortures that fiendish ingenuity could devise — smil- 
ing, exulting, singing Te Deums ; and Jesus of 
Nazareth was the bravest of men. There must have 
been something more than death, then, in this cup. 
What was it ? 

IV. The world's sin. The two darkest, bitterest 
experiences in the history of a human soul are con- 
viction of sin and retribution ; both of these, in a 
sense, came to him who became our substitute be- 
fore the offended law. 

1. Conviction of sin. Was Christ a sinner then ? 
No and yes. Of all who ever lived on earth he was 
the only guiltless one. There was no guile in his 
heart, no guile in his lips. But he took our place, 
and in doing so he must have changed places with us 
in such a way as to enter into our very consciousness. 
If he was to suffer for our sins, he must in a sense 
feel them as his own. Thus it is written, " He that 
knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him." The pain 
of the publican who beat upon his breast, crying, 
" God be merciful " ; the pain of the prodigal son as 
he sat in the swine field, realizing in rags and poverty 
his unspeakable loss ; the pain of Bunyan, who, as he 
walked through the forest with a certain fearful look- 
ing for of judgment, envied, as he says, the very owls 
and toads ; the pain of all who have ever felt them- 
selves to have passed justly under the wrath of a 
holy God ; all this was in the cup which, in behalf 
of the ruined race, was pressed to Jesus' lips. It must 
have been to his own consciousness as if he, the 



242 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



absolutely sinless one, had committed all the thefts 
and murders and adulteries and unspeakable 
blasphemies, that had ever been laid to his people's 
charge. Oh, what a world of anguish was laid upon 
the heart of this Atlas, who thus identified himself 
with us ! 

2. Experience of retribution. Our Lord had not 
fully discharged his vicarious office until he assumed 
the full penalty of our sin ; so it is written, "Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us." In view of this fact there is an 
awful significance in the statement of the historic 
creed of the universal Church, " He descended into 
hell for us." The worm of remorse that gnaws and 
never dies, the fire of despair that burns and is never 
quenched, the outer darkness of divine abandonment, 
he knew them all. Little wonder that his frame 
shook and trembled, or that the sweat of agony 
stood like blood drops on his brow, when this cup 
was pressed to his lips. 

" O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head ! 

Our load was laid on thee ; 
Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, 

Didst bear all ill for me. 
Death and the curse were in our cup ; 

O Christ, 'twas full for thee ! 
But thou hast drained the last dark drop ; 

'Tis empty now for me. 
That bitter cup, love drank it up ; 

Now blessing's draught for me ! " 

Here then is the antidote for death. To receive Christ 
by faith is to consent that he shall thus stand in our 
place before the offended law. In this case our guilt 
is expiated in him and we go free. " He that believeth 
shall be saved." And, being saved by this free grace 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



2 43 



of Christ, what remains for us but to live for him? 
At the beginning of our Civil War in the little town 
of Yadkin there was a collision of the skirmish lines. 
The negroes, hiding in the swamps and behind the 
fences, saw here and there the puffs of smoke, and 
knew that this was a part of a mighty conflict in 
which were involved their hopes of manhood and 
freedom. The next morning an old colored preacher, 
coming out of hiding, saw lying in the road a dead 
man, his hands clutching the earth, his blue coat 
stained with his life-blood. He went back and 
brought with him a little company of the refugees, and 
they scooped out a shallow grave beside the road and 
buried this man, who, they felt, had suffered and died 
in their behalf. To-day a church stands over that 
mound and the negroes assemble there to render 
praises to God. Oh, what do we owe to him who by 
his death on Calvary delivered us from eternal shame 
and sorrow ! " What shall I render unto him for all 
his loving kindness? I will take the cup of salvation 
and call on the name of the Lord." 

Here, also, is the secret of life. Life is character. 
Character begins when a man's will is subjected to 
the divine will. To every one of us comes sooner or 
later the struggle of Gethsemane. It is a conflict of 
wills. I want to have my way ; God wants to have 
his way with me. As his child I have power to defy 
him, but that way lies death. The turning point of 
life, the crisis of the battle, is when you or I can say, 
" O my Father, not my will but thine be done!" 
This marks the entrance of the higher life. 

It is written that when the anguish of Gethsemane 
was over, an angel came and ministered to Christ. 
He needed help ; his form was bowed, his face bore 



244 



THE PURPLE CUP. 



the marks of his terrific struggle. A gleam as of a 
star falling, and lo ! an angel bent over him. And 
something like this comes to all who end the conflict 
by yielding a complete and final acquiescence in the 
divine will. Our Lord himself, kinder than any 
angel, bends down to say, "Thou hast fought a good 
fight. Thou art my younger brother in the glory 
of the better life." And thenceforth we are no longer 
our own ; our lives are hid with Christ in God. 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



" So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."— Heb. Hi. 19. 

The children of Israel are frequently spoken of in 
Scripture as a stiff-necked people — " A perverse and 
stiff-necked people." Why ? Because they were so 
slow to learn the simple lesson, " I am the Lord thy 
God." 

To teach this lesson was the prime purpose of the 
wonders that were wrought on that Passover night 
when the Israelites were delivered out of the land of 
Egypt and out of the house of their bondage. They 
had been told of a land flowing with milk and honey; 
the arm of the Lord, made bare in their behalf in the 
terrible plague, was to lead them thither. No more 
toiling in the brick yards, no more cringing under 
the whip of scorpions ; rest, green pastures, milk and 
honey ; these were the pleasures to which they were 
looking forward when, girdled and sandalled and lean- 
ing on their staves, they waited for the signal on that 
dreadful night. It came at length, the awful cres- 
cendo of woe, and forth they marched under the 
blood-stained lintels of their doors. 

It was only a ten days' journey from Rameses to 
the foot hills of Canaan. Ten days and their troubles 
would be over. Alas ! had they only known. The 
ten days were to stretch out into forty years of wan- 

(245) 



246 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



dering, with Canaan almost in sight. So near and 
yet so far ! And all because of their unbelief ; for 
they could not enter in until they had learned this 
lesson, "I am the Lord thy God." 

It was three days only after their departure when 
they encamped at Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and 
the sea, with the mountains on either side. They 
heard the sound of horses' hoofs afar off, and the cry 
was raised that Pharaoh and his host were pursuing 
them. Smitten with sudden fear, they began to com- 
plain of their folly in leaving Egypt. Here they were, 
caught in a trap and doomed to death. What should 
they do ? It seems not to have occurred to them 
that the Lord was their God. Stand still and see 
his salvation ! The waves rolled back to make a 
way of escape, and all night long, over the stones 
slippery with seaweed, they fled before the rumbling 
of the chariot wheels. Not one was lost. On the 
further side of the sea they heard, in the deep dark- 
ness, the rolling back of the waters, the neighing of 
horses and the shrill cries of struggling men. The 
day broke ; the chariot wheels and corpses of Pha- 
raoh's men came floating to the shore. The song 
was raised, "Who is like unto our God, glorious in 
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ! " Now 
surely they had learned their lesson. Never more 
could they forget that the Lord was their God. 

Not long after, they pitched their tents under the 
shadow of Sinai. Never in all the course of history, 
save at Golgotha, have there been such manifesta- 
tions of a present Deity as at that flaming mount: 
the earth quaked and trembled, clouds gathered about 
the summit and their blackness was rent by vivid 
lightning ; the sound of a trumpet was heard waxing 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



247 



louder and louder. But despite these awful phenom- 
ena, the people soon betrayed their utter unbelief: " Up, 
make us gods ! " they cried. They reared the golden 
calf and danced about it in unholy orgies. These be 
your gods, O Israel ! The sacred bull of Egypt, as- 
sociated with all the sorrows of their bitter bondage, 
was more to them than Jehovah, who had borne them 
upon his providence as on eagle's wings. 

It was the summer after the exodus when they 
found themselves at Kadesh-Barnea, on the very 
borders of the promised land. Off yonder were its 
green mountain slopes ; naught was needed but that 
they should go in and take possession, but they hesi- 
tated. Who knew what dangers might await them ? 
Spies were sent to search out the land. They re- 
turned presently, bringing with them grapes and 
pomegranates and other rich products of the country, 
but saying, "There are giants in the land and we 
were in their sight but as grasshoppers." Then the 
voice of wailing, " Why did we ever come out of 
Egypt ? Far better to have remained in bondage 
with our simple meal of leeks and lentils, than to 
have come forth to face this certainty of death." 
Where was their confidence in God ? The great 
lesson was still unlearned. Whipped on by unbelief, 
they must still go round about by the way of the 
wilderness until they shall learn that the Lord is 
God. 

Now thirty-eight years have passed and gone ; 
they are on the borders of Canaan. All along their 
journey they have been led by the pillar of cloud by 
day and of fire by night. Not once has God forsaken 
them. Yet, under a momentary trial, they again 
give way to murmuring. The fiery serpents run 



248 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



through the camp, hissing and stinging. The brazen 
serpent is upreared and the word goes forth, " Look 
and live ! " They are saved, but not yet convinced. 
They cannot enter in because of unbelief. Verily, 
they are a perverse and stiff-necked people. 

We are all alike ; there is no difference. We differ 
as to our darling sins, but back of them all lies unbe- 
lief. This is the head and front of all our offending. 
Oh, how many lands of promise we are prevented 
from entering by our unbelief ! Why is it that all are 
not partakers of the rich inheritance of the gospel of 
Christ ? Because of unbelief ; for it is written, 
"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent." 

The universal query is this : "What shall I do to 
be saved ? " But back of that is another : " What 
has God done to save me ? " A mother with her lit- 
tle child crossing an arm of the Syrian desert saw in 
the distance the dreadful token of an approaching 
sand storm, — the yellow haze, the low hissing. She 
began to run with all speed, but soon perceived that 
the simoom must overtake her. She hastily scooped 
out a hole in the sand, into it she placed her child, 
and threw herself over it. The storm swept past; the 
mother died, but the child was saved. This is the 
story of the cross. One died for all because all were 
under sentence of death, that we might be saved 
through him. He was wounded for our transgres- 
sions and bruised for our iniquities, that by his 
stripes we might be healed. Now returns the ques- 
tion, "What must I do?" And the answer is, "Be- 
lieve, only believe ! " 

(1) We are commanded so to do. " Believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." " He 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



249 



that believeth and is baptized " (that is. makes con- 
fession of his faith, because with the heart man be- 
lieveth unto righteousness and with the mouth con- 
fession is made unto salvation) " shall be saved ; and 
he that believeth not shall be damned." "I am the 
resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." " He 
that believeth on the Son is not condemned ; but he 
that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten 
Son of God." It will probably be conceded on all 
sides that, inasmuch as salvation is of free grace, God 
has the right to affix to it any condition which might 
please him. This is the sole condition — to believe in 
the only begotten Son of God. 

(2) To believe is necessary in the nature of the case. 
We, being made in the divine likeness, are possessed 
of sovereign wills and God cannot force his grace 
upon us. If he constrains us, it must be with the 
"cords of a man." He did not force the children of 
Israel to partake of the manna which he gave. It lay 
upon the ground plenteous as hoar frost ; it was free, 
absolutely free ; and there was enough for all. But 
a man might walk through the camp with manna 
lying thick on all sides of him, and yet die of starva- 
tion, if he would not stoop down and take of it. 
Faith is not mere intellectual assent to a fact. It is 
appropriation. It is the hand stretched forth. It is 
receiving Christ so that he becomes ours, his life 
blending with our lives forevermore. 

(3) // is possible for all to believe in Christ. Indeed 
it would be difficult to conceive of any other condi- 
tion which would have placed the divine grace within 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



the reach of all. Gcd might have required us to 
stand like St. Simeon Stylites upon a pillar under the 
suns of summer and the storms of winter for weary- 
years, bound with a chain like his, twenty cubits 
long. Or he might have commanded us to journey 
to some distant shrine, as the Moslems do to the 
black stone of the Caaba. And it is safe to say that 
if such injunctions had been sealed with an unmis- 
takable sanction, we would all be inclined to obey 
them ; for eternal life, even at such a cost, would be 
cheaply bought. But it has pleased God instead to 
make the way plain and easy for all. Only believe. 
The living bread is without price, we need only to 
take and eat it. 

What then ? How shall we escape if we neglect 
so great salvation ? So free, so bountiful, so glorious ! 
Let us learn the lesson of the wedding garment : A 
certain king made a marriage supper for his son ; he 
provided a rich wardrobe in which were suitable gar- 
ments for all who were invited to the feast. When 
all were come together, he went in and out among 
the guests, and lo ! here was one who had not on a 
weddinggarment. " Friend, how earnest thou in hither 
in this guise ? " And he had nothing to say. Speech- 
less ! Why ? Because there was nothing that could 
be said. " Cast him forth into the outer darkness, 
where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing 
of teeth " ; where men curse their unspeakable folly, 
in rejecting the great blessing which was to be had 
for the mere taking. It was free and nigh, and they 
would not have it. 

But the lesson here is not for the impenitent alone. 
We, who profess to follow Jesus, fall far short, by 
reason of our measure of unbelief, of the higher life. 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



It is a great thing to be saved from hell ; but this is 
only the beginning of salvation. Salvation is a vast 
word, and has in it all the treasures of the Christian 
life. There are maximum Christians, and there are 
minimum Christians, and we may be whatever we 
will. Lot was a good man, but he pitched his tent 
too near the gates of Sodom ; and when the message 
came, " Fly for your life ; look not behind you ! " he 
betook himself to the mountains. When he passed 
through the gateway of little Zoar, he was a bereaved 
and poverty-stricken man. He had lost all ; herds, 
flocks, beloved wife, earthly possessions, and was 
saved so as by fire. We may be saved in like manner; 
or, if we choose, we may have ministered unto us an 
abundant entrance into the celestial city. There are 
vast possibilities in the Christian life. God help us 
so to believe that we may attain unto them. 

Look now at the sad disabilities brought upon us 
by our unbelief. 

(i) JBy our unbelief we are excluded from the prom- 
ised land of peace. This is the inheritance which our 
master intended for us : " Peace I leave with you, my 
peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth, give 
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid." And we go on singing : 

"When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come 
To take thy ransomed people home, 

Shall I among them stand? 
Shall such a worthless worm as I, 
Who sometimes am afraid to die, 

Be found at thy right hand ? " 

Why do we not take him at his word ? Are you 
saved? " I hope so." Hope so! Why do you not 
believe it ? Did not the Lord say that when you had 



252 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



placed yourself in his charge, no man should pluck 
you out of his hand ? Did he not say, " Lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end " ? Is it not true, 
" There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus " ? Does this mean nothing, 
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that 
condemneth ? It is Christ that died." Have you re- 
pented ? Have you believed ? Have you been bap- 
tized ? If not, get down on your knees and " do the 
first works." But if you have already committed your- 
self to Christ and for Christ, then take the Master at 
his word and rest in him. 

On that night when Jesus came walking to his 
disciples on the sea, Peter was moved to say, " Lord, 
-if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." 
And the Master said, " Come." He set out bravely, 
but looking on the yawning billows, he began 
to sink, and cried, " Lord, save me ! " The hand was 
stretched out and then the reproving word, "O 
thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" 
Do we covet the calm self-poise of Jesus? Do we 
long for that peace which moves above all the raging 
waves of doubt and worry ? Then let us believe. 
Doubt cuts the sinews of our strength. Doubt clips 
our wings and leaves us to flutter near the earth, like 
wounded birds that should soar aloft and sing. 

(2) By our unbelief we arc excluded from the promised 
land of character. What is character ? Christ-like- 
ness. And how is it attained ? By the imitation of 
Christ. We profess to believe in him as the chiefest 
among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely. 
He is that perfect ideal of manhood in whom are 
manifest all the fruits of the Spirit : love, joy, peace, 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



253 



long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, truth. If we so 
believe in him, we shall be ever following in his foot- 
steps. The world expects to see in us a reflection of 
the perfections of our Lord. It is a reasonable re- 
quirement. The measure of our attainment unto this 
Christ-likeness will be precisely the measure of our 
faith. "Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside 
every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, 
and let us run with patience the race that is set before 
us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our 
faith." 

(3) By our measure of unbelief we are shut out from 
the Canaan of power and usefulness. At the foot of the 
Mount of Transfiguration the disciples were put to 
shame because they were unable to heal the demoniac 
boy. The Lord came down out of the mountain and 
into their midst, his face shining, and looking round 
upon his disciples he said, " O ye faithless ones, how 
long shall I bear with you ?" Afterwards when they 
asked him, "Why could not we heal the lad?" he 
answered, " Because of your unbelief." Then, as they 
continued their journey, he said unto them, "If ye 
have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say 
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place ; 
and it shall remove." A grain of mustard seed was 
the symbol of littleness, but the mustard seed had in 
it the power of life. The lifting of a mountain was 
the symbol of impossibility, but all things are possible 
to him who believes. This is not rhetoric ; not 
hyperbole ; it is truth. If our faith were perfect, it 
would always be buttressed by the omnipotence of 
God. 



254 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



We are appointed to a great work, the work of 
the kingdom of truth and righteousness. Do we 
believe in our divine appointment to that work, and 
have we an unwavering faith in its ultimate success ? 
On Monday, September the tenth, 1807, a great crowd 
was assembled on the wharf in Albany to witness the 
trial trip of Robert Fulton's boat, the Clermont. 
They called it " Fulton's Folly." He says that on 
that day he heard many " sarcastic remarks." They 
were making great sport of him. But presently 
clouds of steam and smoke puffed from her smoke- 
stacks, the spray began to fly from her paddle- 
wheels and the first steamboat of history moved out 
into the river. Then the laughter ceased ; and as the 
Clermont moved down the Hudson, her builder, 
standing on her deck, smiled as in the distance he 
heard the sound. of cheering. The secret of his suc- 
cess lay in a profound belief in his work. He knew 
that right principles were involved in the machine^ 
of the Clermont. This is the faith that ever wins. 
Our work is the bringing of the nations to the knowl- 
edge of Christ. O for a larger faith in the outcome; 
the outcome which rests upon the veracity of the 
living God ! Let us believe that the ships of Tarshish 
will come from afar, the rams of Nebaioth and the 
dromedaries of Midian, and that all the nations shall 
render obeisance to our Lord. Believing, we shall 
lend a hand, and our lives will tell to the glory of 
God. 

What is the conclusion of the whole matter? 
" Only believe! " We enter the kingdom by faith. We 
walk by faith. The just shall live by faith. All 
things are possible to him that believeth. " He came 



DISABLED BY UNBELIEF. 



255 



unto his own and his own received him not ; but to 
as many as received him, to them he gave power to 
become the sons of God ; even to them that believe on 
his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the 
will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE 



DISCIPLES. 

14 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto 
him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said 
unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds uf the air have nests ; but the 
Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, 
Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 
Jesus said unto him. Let the dead bury their dead ; but go thou and preach 
the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee ; 
but let me first so bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and 
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."— Luke ix. 57-62. 

Down from the north came James I. to take the 
English crown. He was gorgeously arrayed and the 
horse upon which he rode was gaily caparisoned. 
With him rode a considerable company of enthusias- 
tic friends and partisans. At frequent intervals he 
paused to address admiring crowds of rustics drawn 
up along the way. Here and there, being in a most 
kindly humor, he was pleased to lay his sword on the 
shoulder of a country squire and bid him rise a belted 
knight. The days were spent in pleasant converse, 
the nights in revelry. So with much pomp and cir- 
cumstance the retinue came at length to London 
town. Then the king, amid enthusiastic greetings 
and acclamations, proceeded to Westminster where 
the sceptre and the anointing oil awaited him. 

Down from the north came another king to claim 
his own, — the King of Kings and Lords of Lords, 

(256) 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 257 



though wearing a disguise of flesh. He was clad in 
homespun and journeyed afoot. No enthusiastic 
crowds attended him ; only a little group of fisher- 
men and other toilers, humble, unlettered, unnoticed 
by the world. Day after day he trudged wearily on, 
pausing only to preach the unsearchable riches of 
the kingdom or to work miracles of kindness; at night, 
dusty and worn, he rested under the canopy of heaven. 
He had "set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem " 
to a crown of thorns, a baptism of blood. He knew 
what awaited him; — the treachery, the loneliness, the 
nails, the fever, the death anguish, the heart-break. 
Yet he went on. What volumes of heroism are in that 
word "steadfastly." It would appear that he was 
inspired, almost transfigured, by the anticipation of 
his sacrifice ; for it is written that as they journeyed 
his disciples "feared," "wondered," "were amazed." 

Not a few of the pilgrims, who were at this time 
journeying to Jerusalem to attend the passover feast, 
fell in with this little company, and, impressed by the 
majesty of Jesus' work and teaching, were moved to 
follow him. Among those who thus presented them- 
selves were three aspirants, who received special men- 
tion probably because they were generic types. All 
three expressed a desire to become his disciples, but 
we know not that any one of them ultimately fol- 
lowed him. 

The Lord wanted friends and adherents. He had 
come the long journey from heaven, to win souls from 
the pursuit of temporal things to the higher life. 
But there must be no misunderstanding ; he would 
make no alluring promises, to be followed by disap- 
pointment. When Mohammed was pushing his vic- 
torious campaign, he recruited his army by giving 



253 THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 

assurance of all kinds of honors and emoluments 
here, or, in case of death in battle, a sensuous 
heaven, with gardens and fountains and wine and 
houris and an eternity of luxurious ease. Not so 
our Saviour. He made a frank presentment of the 
case, saying, " If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." 
And again, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly 
in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 

The first of these aspirants for discipleship may be 
characterized as the impulsive man. " Lord, I will fol- 
low thee," he cried, " withersoever thou goest." 
He had seen Christ's miracles, had heard his dis- 
courses, had marked the unmistakable tokens of Mes- 
sianic dignity in him and could not restrain himself ; 
U I will follow thee withersoever thou goest." And 
whither was that ? To circles of influence, to splen- 
did victories over his adversaries, to a glorious reign 
in Jerusalem ? Nay. Let him know the truth. This 
Christ was going to self-denial, to suffering, to the 
sacrifice of the cross. The man's bright dreams 
are all illusive. One word will dash them : " Foxes 
have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the 
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." 

It was as if the Lord had said, " Nay ; stop and 
think. Do nothing hastily, ponder it well, first count 
the cost, and then come." The first and greatest duty 
of every man is to think on the great problems that 
reach forth into the endless life. If amid the care 
and hurry of earthly pursuits we would only turn 
aside to think, to ponder on the great verities, 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 259 

we should all perforce cast in our lot with the fol- 
lowers of Christ. In the second century the pagan 
philosopher Athenagoras was moved to write a phil- 
ippic against the Christian religion. " But," said 
he, " I will know the facts to begin with." He 
looked into the face of Jesus ; and its beauty grew 
upon him more and more until it seemed the chiefest 
among ten thousand and altogether lovely. In vain 
did he seek for a joint in the harness of Christ's 
character. His works were all kindness, his dis- 
courses were all truth. As he looked upon him, he 
also "feared," "wondered," "was amazed"; and he 
concluded by writing an elaborate and convincing 
defence of the religion of the prophet of Nazareth. 
If the multitudes who are wont to regard Jesus as a 
root out of a dry ground without form or comeliness, 
would do likewise, they also would end by loving and 
serving him. 

No sooner do we begin to consider frankly the 
gospel, than we find ourselves face to face with three 
things : (i) A mighty claim. A claim which at the out- 
set seems preposterous ; for this Jesus of Nazareth 
sets himself up as the veritable Son of God. He pro- 
fesses to be the fulfiller of all those prophecies of 
the old economy which pointed forward to the incar- 
nation of Deity ; such as, " A virgin shall conceive 
and bear a son and call his name Immanuel ; which 
is, being interpreted, God with us " ; and, " He shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." He pre- 
sents himself to us as that Word which was in the 
beginning with God and which was God and of whom 
it is written, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us ; and we beheld his glory, the glory of the 



260 THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 



only begotten of the Father." He alone is Thean- 
thropos, the God-man. Great is the mystery of god- 
liness, God manifest in flesh. This claim must either 
be allowed or denied ; there is no middle course. If 
it be denied, then Jesus must be denounced as an im- 
postor. If it be allowed, then we mast of necessity 
bow down before him, saying, "My Lord and my 
God." (2) An eternal issue. Here is the sealing of 
our destiny. This Jesus came into the world to 
suffer and to die for sinners ; " He was wounded for 
our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and 
by his stripes we are healed." "He that believeth 
shall be saved ; he that believeth not, shall be 
damned." " He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life ; he that believeth not, is condemned 
already ; the wrath of God abideth upon him." If 
these things are so, the cross stands at the parting of 
the ways. Yonder is the broad way leading out into 
the endless night, and here is the narrow way along 
which pass the multitude in white robes, washed in 
his blood, sinners saved by grace, toward the open 
gates of heaven and the endless day. To deny Christ, 
therefore, is the unpardonable sin because it closes 
the only door of escape from death. The question, 
therefore, is one of supreme moment to every man. 
(3) A tremendous venture. To follow Christ means 
the consecration of everything to him. Let a man 
ponder well, act with deliberation, and yet make no 
delay. In financial circles it is the custom for men, 
who invest in one speculation, to "hedge " by invest- 
ing in others also, so that everything may not be lost 
in case of reverse. But there is no hedging in this 
matter. A wise ship-owner will never put all his 
wealth into a single vessel, but divides it among several, 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 26 1 



so that if one cargo is lost in shipwreck, he may still 
have something left. But there is no reserve in this 
matter. I know a man who, being interested in a 
Colorado mine, tried to save his investment by put- 
ting in more and more until all his possessions were 
involved. And when the calamity came, he spoke of 
himself as a fool for thus risking all in one venture. 
Paul, also, called himself a fool for Jesus' sake in that 
he had given up all for him. In fact, however, this 
was no venture, this was no speculation, but a very 
surety. " No man," said the Master, "hath given up 
aught for my sake and the gospel's, but that he shall 
receive an hundred-fold in this present time and in 
the time to come life everlasting." 

These are some of the things for impulsive people 
to ponder well. Let it be remembered, however, 
that thinking does not involve protracted delay. The 
interests involved are such that our deliberations 
should bring us to a speedy conclusion. He that had 
not where to lay his head calls us to enter into fel- 
lowship with him in devotion to truth and righteous- 
ness. The only question is whether his demand is 
right and reasonable ; that being ascertained, the 
part of a true man is forthwith to comply with it. 

The second of the aspirants for discipleship was 
the dilatory man. He had met with bereavement and 
his face bore the traces of sorrow. The Lord saw 
that face and had compassion, saying in himself 
"This man is under a burden ; my gospel will help 
him to bear it." Therefore, he took the initiative and 
said to him, " Come and follow me." Just as he has 
done with us perhaps, speaking to us with a still, 
small voice when we were lying on a bed of languish- 
ing or sore-hearted under affliction, saying, " Come, 



262 THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 

and I will give you rest." And this man answered 
what ? "I will follow thee, but let me first go and 
bury my father." 

Aye, there's the trouble. We are all hoping to 
follow Christ, but must " first " do this or first do that; 
but the Master knows no first but this, " Seek ye first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness." 

But was it not hard that this man could not go and 
bury his father ? To do that was, as we say, paying a 
debt of nature. Yes, but the Master's call suggested 
a debt of grace, which was far greater. Wherefore 
he said, " Let the dead bury their dead ; but go thou 
and preach the gospel." Let those who are in the 
bonds of nature discharge the debts of nature. The 
greater must ever overtop the less. Had this man 
attended to the obsequies of his father according to 
the Jewish custom, it would have meant seven days 
of wailing ; meanwhile Jesus was journeying on. 

We are all coming; — all meaning to come to Christ, 
but not just now. We can hear the voice of the 
mother at the foot of the stairs in the old home, 
calling to us in the early morning to come. The 
chores must be done, the breakfast was ready, it 
was time to be thinking of the satchel and the school. 
" Children, come ! " And from our beds we answered, 
" Coming ! " and said within ourselves, "Yet a little 
sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to 
sleep," till from the foot of the stairs came another, 
the father's voice this time, calling, " Come now ! " 
and there was authority in it. So is the voice of the 
great Father, "Come now!" 

But why come now ? For these reasons. (1) Christ 
is passing by. He does not linger. He is ever on a 
journey. We hear his footsteps coming near, as 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 263 

Bartimseus at the gate of Jericho heard them, and 
his voice as he bends over us, "Arise and follow me." 
Already he is going, the voice grows fainter, the foot- 
steps are almost hushed ; the conscience that troubled 
us once, troubles us no more ; no more longings and 
aspirations ; less and less of the fearful looking for of 
judgment ; more and more of content with the beg- 
garly elements of this world. The sound of the foot- 
steps is hushed ; Jesus of Nazareth has passed by. 

(2) The work commands ; the work which is ap- 
pointed to you and me. God is busy ; as the Master 
said, " My Father worketh hitherto and I work." What 
is he doing? Saving the world. And in this great work 
he has appointed you and me a part. "Why stand 
ye idle all the day ? Lift up your eyes and look on the 
fields, they are white already for the harvest. Thrust 
in the sickle and reap. Go work to-day." In a cor- 
ner of the field where the harvest is plenteous, there 
is a place unreaped ; unreaped, because my sickle is 
not there. God's temple is rising ; a great multitude 
of his people are laying stone upon stone ; but there 
is one place in the wall which remains unbuilt; a trowel 
is there unused because your hand has not grasped 
it. The army of the cross goes marching on, con- 
quering and to conquer ; in the great roster there is 
a place for a name, but no name there ; it was left 
for you and still you hesitate. Every moment of de- 
lay means something undone that should be done ; a 
command unheeded, a call rejected, an opportunity 
despised, a debt protested and unpaid. 

(3) The sands are falling in the hour-glass. Life 
is but an handbreadth, an arrow speeding to 
its mark, a swift ship, an eagle hastening to its 
prey, a tale told. So teach us to number our 



264 THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 

days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 
To-day if ye will hear his voice ! In the company of 
the French literati there is no name more brilliant 
than Guy de Maupassant, prematurely dead. Owing 
to the disreputable character of his productions, the 
French Academy had refused to affix its imprimatur 
to his work. He said, "The Academy would con- 
demn me to virtue, but there is plenty of time for vir- 
tue." The words had scarcely passed from his lips 
before he was seized with that melancholy madness 
which ended his life. No, no; if we have work to do, 
now is the time to attend to it. Time and tide wait 
for no man. Let us be wise to-day. 

The third aspirant was the double-minded man. He 
said, " I will follow thee, Lord, but suffer me first to 
say farewell to those at home." A reasonable request 
surely. Home, the dear mother's face, all the sweet 
associations of the domestic circle. What harm in 
going back to say farewell ? But there is never a 
conflict of duties and duty never waits on comfort or 
convenience. " If a man love home, kindred, friends 
better than me, he cannot be my disciple." Where- 
fore, the Lord replied, " He that putteth his hand to 
the plough and looketh back, is not fit for the king- 
dom." There is no room for a divided service. The 
oriental plough was merely a crooked stick sharpened 
at the share. A man must guide it carefully and give 
all attention to his task, or else he would make a zig- 
zag furrow — just such a furrow as the double-minded 
man always makes of his life. 

Let it be observed, (1) that the supreme considera- 
tion always is duty. Duty is debt, the very same word; 
but duty is above all other debts in that it is an ob- 
ligation owed to God. Duty means life, character, 



THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 265 

usefulness, eternal peace. All else dwindles in com- 
parison with it. Let it be observed also (2) that the 
only way to enter upon this life of duty is ly complete sur- 
render to it. At the siege of Fort Donaldson, when 
General Buckner proposed an armistice, General 
Grant replied, " There is no reason for an armistice. 
I propose to move immediately upon your works; 
my terms are unconditional surrender." Uncondi- 
tional surrender ; time, talents, possessions, energy, 
everything. God bids us lay them down before his 
altar a living sacrifice. 

" Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
All to leave and follow thee." 

And observe still further that having entered upon 
this life of duty, (3) there must be no looking back. Our 
faces must be set as steadfastly as the face of Jesus, 
toward the responsibilities before us. Remember 
Lot's wife. Curiously enough it was this very long- 
ing to say farewell to home that ruined her. What 
harm in one backward glance ? But the word was, 
" Flee for your life, escape to the mountains, look not 
behind you." The pilgrim who fled from the City of 
Destruction, thrust his fingers into his ears and cried 
as he ran, " Life ! Life ! Eternal life ! If we would 
make a success of our holy endeavor, good friends, 
let us take leave of sin and selfishness. Laying aside 
all encumbering weights and everything that hinders, 
let us reach forth unto the things that are before, 
looking unto Jesus. This one thing I do. 

The curtain falls upon the story of these aspirants. 
We have no means of knowing what became of them. 
But there were others who, with an undivided heart, 
went following after Christ. There were those 
humble fishermen, John and James and Peter and 



266 THE STORY OF THREE WOULD-BE DISCIPLES. 

the others, who had left their nets and boats and all. 
"And what shall we receive?" asked they. "An 
hundredfold here," he. answered, "and in the time to 
come life everlasting." It may be that we shall see 
them presently in the streets of the heavenly city, and 
if we ask them whether they regret the sacrifice they 
made for Jesus' sake, what will they answer? What 
can they answer in that land where gold is no more 
than the pavement of the streets, and God is light, 
and righteousness is the meat and drink of all the 
immortals ? In the church of San Stephano at Rome 
there is a series of panels representing the deaths of 
the apostles. Here is James bowing his head under 
the gleaming axe ; here is Peter head downward on 
the cross ; here is another being cast in a caldron of 
boiling oil ; and there a fourth facing the lions. And 
this was what they received for their surrender of 
all? Nay, not this. The milk and honey lie beyond 
the wilderness. Life everlasting ! Heaven is full of 
those who have come up out of the great tribulation 
and among them all there is not one who regrets his 
choice ; nor is there one here upon the earth who has 
entered into the full fellowship of the service of Christ, 
who does not sing with heart and understanding, 

" O happy day, that fixed my choice 
On thee, my Saviour and my God." 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



" Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook 
Cherith that is before Jordan."— I, Kings xvii. 3. 

The time of our narrative is the darkest hour in 
the history of Israel. Ahab was on the throne ; a 
man of brutal instincts and under the capricious 
domination of a strong-minded woman, whose name 
is a synonym for all that is base and unwomanly. 
She was the daughter of a pagan priest and had in- 
troduced the worship of the Phoenician gods. On 
all the hill-tops were the altars of Baal and the unclean 
Ashtoreth. Clouds and darkness covered the land. 
The people forgot the Lord who had delivered them 
out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage ; 
and they were given over to their own foolish imag- 
inations. 

On a sudden, from the distant mountains of 
Gilead came Elijah, a son of the desert, nourished 
amid the rocks and tempests. His appearance was 
like that of a meteor in the night. 
" He stood in Ahab's ivory hall ; 

His cloak the skin of mountain goat, his robe a mohair pall. 
His garb around his sinewy loins a rawhide belt confined ; 
His hair and beard, like raven plumes, streamed dark along 
the wind. 

A strong acacia's spiky stem, scarce smoothed, was in his 
hand ; 

His feet were fleshless, callous, bare, and tawny as the sand ; 
(267) 



2 68 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



His brow, a soaring crag, o'erhung his swart and shaggy 
chest, 

And 'neath its shades his eyes gleamed keen as eagles' from 
their nest." 

As he stood at the threshold of the palace, his words 
were few : " As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there 
shall be no rain nor dew, but according to my word! " 

In the confusion of the startled court he escaped, 
no one knew whither. The king and his attendants 
were left trembling at the awful, almost forgot- 
ten name, " The Lord God of Israel." But why- 
should they heed the maundering of a mad her- 
mit? No dew nor rain forsooth but according to his 
word! These are foolish fears. But that night no 
dew fell, and the next day it did not rain. Days and 
nights came and went, and there was neither rain nor 
dew. The clouds swept over, barren and dry as 
fleece. The fields were burnt ; the herds and flocks 
went lowing and bleating in vain for water. The 
brooks murmured lower and lower to their pebbly 
beds. No rain! no dew! The scourge was on them 
like a fever now ; the heavens were as brass ; the wind 
swept by in furious gusts. Men and women, gaunt 
and hollow-eyed, reminded each other of the hermit's 
word. A year went by. Two years. Three years. 
No rain! no dew! 

In the meantime, what had become of Elijah ? He 
had taken refuge by the brook of the gorge. On 
every side the mountains shut him in. Here in the 
solitude he was left to find tongues in trees, sermons 
in stones, books in the running brooks. No sound 
but the scream of the eagle wheeling on poised wings 
to its eyrie, or the rattling of stones along the moun- 
tain side, loosed by the foot of the wild goat, or the 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



269 



murmur of the brook. There are so many kinds of 
voices in the world, and none of them is without sig- 
nification. 

But why should this man have been secluded at an hour so 
critical, — this man who alone could have lifted a voice of 
stern rebuke, who alone had the courage to tear down 
the high places and scatter the altar fires of Baal ? 

I. God had placed the prophet here because He would 
take care of him and preserve hi)n for usefulness farther 
on. He was sheltered here as securely as in the hol- 
low of God's hand. In vain did Ahab send out his 
spies, bidding them go find the man that troubled 
Israel. Up and down the land they sought for Elijah, 
but found him not. 

In 1755, in the battle in which General Braddock 
was defeated and mortally wounded, after five horses 
had been shot under him, when sixty-three out of 
eighty-six English officers were killed and more than 
one-half of the rank and file left dead upon the field, 
there was one young officer who seemed to have a 
charmed life. A savage, who was afterwards cap- 
tured, said that he had aimed at this young Lieutenant 
no less than seventeen times without effect, " But," 
he added, " the Great Spirit protected him." This 
young man was George Washington, for whom a 
glorious work was waiting, and it was true that God 
held him in His protecting care. And this is but the 
statement of the general law, that a man is immortal 
till his work is done. 

The man who sat beside the brook Cherith had 
two firm friends to bear him company. One was a 
good conscience. What are all the whips and scorns of 
time ? What are all the slings and arrows of out- 
rageous fortune ? What are all the ills that human 



270 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



flesh is heir to, if a man can sa3 r , l< I know that I am 
doing right " ? And his other friend was an acquies- 
cent will, a readiness to mingle in the open conflict or 
to abide in solitude just as his Master pleased. 

On the public green at New Haven are three in- 
conspicuous graves where lie the bodies of Goffe, 
Whalley and Dixwell, the regicides who, obeying the 
dictates of conscience, sentenced Charles I. to death. 
For this, in the time of the Restoration, they were 
driven beyond the sea and hunted like partridges 
over the hills. They lived in disguise and under as- 
sumed names, bearing about with them, for their 
comfort, only the strong assurance that they had 
done their duty, until one by one they were buried in 
these humble graves. But a mile away there is 
another spot that tells the story of their fearless 
faith, — a cave on West Rock where these men spent 
days and nights in shelter. On the wall of this cave 
you may see rudely inscribed by their unskilled 
hands, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." 

This was the prophet's strength. As he dwelt 
here in the solitude, he knew that God had not for- 
gotten him. There was water for his thirst, the 
ravens fed him, and the brook as it flowed by kept 
murmuring, " Trust in the Lord and do good, so 
shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be 
fed." 

II. God had furthermore put Elijah in this secret place 
to get him out of the way ; for the prophet had come to 
have a great opinion of himself. He felt that he alone 
was left, faithful among the faithless, to uphold the 
true religion. When Alexander T. Stewart, the 
merchant prince, was remonstrated with for discharg- 
ing an old and trusted employe, he gave this reason, 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



271 



"Whenever a man thinks himself to be indispensable, 
I make it a rule to discharge him." The Lord some- 
times turns his servants aside for a like reason, that 
he may teach them their proper place. The evangel- 
ist Philip was sent away from Samaria when the 
great revival was at its height ; the word being, " Go 
down along the way to Gaza, which is desert." It 
is well for us to learn the lesson that God was able 
to manage the affairs of this world before we came 
upon the scene and will be able to get along some- 
how when we have passed from it. 

This prophet had made a great prayer. The Apostle 
James refers to it thus : " The effectual fervent prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much." And then pro- 
ceeds to illustrate by saying, " Elias was a man sub- 
ject to like passions as we are, and he prayed 
earnestly that it might not rain : and it rained not on 
the earth by the space of three years and six months." 
A great prayer and an awful answer ! What now 
could the prophet do ? He had brought down a 
famine upon the land and matters were quite beyond 
him. He was like a child who draws the wedge that 
sends the ship sliding from its cradle down into the 
sea ; the child can do no more, it has put that ship 
into the grip of the elements, has given it. a place in 
the vast commerce of the globe, has sent it forth to 
wrestle with tides and tempests. So was it with 
Elijah. If he climbed the heights and looked toward 
the west, he might see the roofs of Jezreel. The 
people there were starving, muttering incoherently, 
cursing God and dying. Here was a state of things 
wherein Elijah could not be trusted. Had he been 
there he would have said, " This has gone far enough ; 
let the suffering cease." But God had a great lesson 



272 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



to teach ; he deals with centuries, eternities ; and 
to the task he brings an infinite wisdom, an im- 
measurable justice, an illimitable love. All things 
are naked and open before him. All the roofs are 
lifted ; he sees every suffering child, all the sorrows 
and all the shame. He knows the wars and pesti- 
lences, the wrongs and persecutions. There are 
thoughtless and irreverent souls who say, " If I were 
God, these things should not be." But he who 
reigneth in light and glory unapproachable, per- 
ceives the end from the beginning. He cannot trust 
Elijah, nor can he trust you, nor me, to manage for 
him. Had such a thought entered the prophet's 
mind, the brook that flowed beside him must have 
murmured its reproof : " Be still and know that I am 
God." 

III. Still further; the prophet was placed in this soli- 
tude in order that he might learn a religious truth 
which we are generally slow to grasp, to-wit, the 
doctrine of Special Providence. It ought scarcely be 
necessary to say that the feeding of this prophet in 
his extremity was of a purely miraculous character. 
There is, however, a class of exegetes, such as busy 
themselves in the vain endeavor to eliminate the 
supernatural from Holy Writ, who explain the matter 
by saying that he climbed the rocks and took his sus- 
tenance from the ravens' nests. And there are others 
who say that there were no ravens in the case, but that 
the word orebim should be rendered " arabs " the fact 
being that the prophet was fed by Bedouins who hap- 
pened that way in their journeyings, or came thither 
to drink. And there are still others who say that 
there was a village called Oreb near the Cherith and 
that its inhabitants provided for him. To what ex- 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



273 



tremity are they driven who refuse to believe in any- 
thing that lies beyond their finger tips ! A recent 
writer, who calls himself a broad-church Episcopalian, 
has gone so far as to assert that the miracles of Jesus 
were wrought under hypnotic influence, thus making 
Christ a mere impostor and mountebank. How pre- 
posterous for such a man to profess, in any sense 
whatever, to believe in Jesus as the Christ of God. 

If an objection had been entered to the doctrine of 
Special Providence in the presence of Elijah, it is 
safe to say that he would have answered in some 
such manner as this : " I went down to the brook in 
the gorge and wondered how provision would be 
made for me. I knelt and committed myself to the 
divine care and then lay down and slept. When I 
awoke I heard the rustle of wings and saw some 
ravens overhead ; by my side lay bread and flesh 
which they had dropped in their flight. ' Strange ! ' 
said I ; and kneeling down I rendered thanks. As 
the day advanced, I wondered how the good God 
would further provide for me, and then at eventide 
the ravens came again and left the bread and flesh. 
* Passing strange,' said I ; 'a marvellous coincidence!' 
On the next morning the same thing happened, and 
again that night, and day after day, and week after 
week, and month after month, and for more than a 
year, as regularly as ever a mother spread her table for 
her children, those ravens came with bread and flesh 
for me. As I thought upon this in solitude it was an 
easy matter to arrive at a definite conclusion by the 
calculation of chances. It seemed to me as millions 
to one that the ravens had not merely happened to 
come that way. There must have been some one 
directing their flight. Can you blame me then if I 



274 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



seem to live with the supernatural all about me and 
would you not regard me as a foolish man, were I to 
disbelieve in God ?•" 

The proof of Special Providence is not always so 
extraordinary in our case ; yet, we are constantly 
cared for by supernatural means. Is not every 
answer to prayer a Special Providence ? And shall 
we not derive from this a lesson of simple trust in 
God ? He provideth for all their meat in due season. 
We are his children. The little people do not fret j 
they do not say, " What will become of me at 
noon?" or, "Where will my dinner come from?" 
or, " Wherewithal shall I be clothed ? " They see 
the father going out in the morning to the work- 
shop, and the mother sitting by the window with 
her needle, and they know that all will be right. 
Let us become as little children in the confidence of 
faith. Let us hear, as Elijah heard, the brook 
Cherith murmuring past him, " Consider the ravens, 
consider the lilies. Are ye not much better than 
they ? and shall not your Father care for you ? " 

But we shall miss the mighty lesson after all, un- 
less at the close of this narrative we find ourselves 
standing under the cross. For what is the cross but 
the greatest of all Special Providences ? There is a 
straight path leading from the brook Cherith to the 
hill Calvary. All is supernatural here. The same 
God who dispatched the ravens to the relief of his 
prophet, sent forth his only begotten and well- 
beloved Son to suffer for us. He dies yonder that 
we may satisfy the hunger of our souls and live for- 
ever. The hand that trembles with the nail at its 
palm, is the hand of God. The lips that are parched 
with the last fever, are the lips of God. The heart 



BY THE BROOK IN THE GORGE. 



275 



that sorrows and breaks under the burden of the 
world's sin, is the heart of God. Great is the 
mystery. It is finished and he dies. Dead ? No, 
hear ! There is singing afar yonder, " Lift up your 
heads, O ye gates, and let the King of Glory enter 
in." There is the sound of water gushing from the 
rock. There is the voice of messengers going every- 
where and calling, " Repent, believe and enter into 
life ! " Here is the miracle of all miracles. Here is 
the Special Providence to which the feeding of 
Elijah and all other Special Providences direct us. 
This is the story the ravens tell. This is the message 
the brook murmurs : " There is a God and he careth 
for us. He hath put all nature under contribution, 
all earth and heaven too, in our behalf. He hath 
made bare his mighty arm to save us. Wherefore 
no goodness on his part is incredible ; for if he 
spared not his only begotten Son, how shall he not 
with him freely give us all things ? He hath made 
the mountains to be a refuge for his people. He 
hath opened the fountain of life : Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ! Let him that heareth, say, Come ; 
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



" And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye : for I know 
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here : for he is risen, 
as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." — Matt, xxviii. 5, 6. 

The saddest day the world ever saw, was that 
which came between the crucifixion and the resurrec- 
tion of our Lord. The disciples were overwhelmed 
with disappointment and sorrow. They had hoped 
that Jesus was he which should redeem Israel, and 
lo, He lay imprisoned in the grave. That Saturday 
was dies non. The followers of Christ had no heart 
for any toil or pleasure. Peter could not even go 
a-fishing. Out yonder in Joseph's garden was a grave 
and a great stone was rolled upon it, and the seal of 
the Roman Empire was affixed to it ; and within that 
grave lay all their hopes and purposes and aspirations. 
The sorrow of that Saturday was afterwards voiced 
by one of the apostles in these words : " If Christ be 
not risen, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins ; 
then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished ; if in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
we are of all men most miserable." 

There is an old cloister under Westminster Abbey, 
which for centuries has been used as the burial place 
of kings. There lies the dust of Saxon sovereigns 
who died a thousand years ago. A few years since a 
visitor, absorbed in contemplation of old epitaphs and 

(276) 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



277 



other memorials of mortality, had lost all conscious- 
ness of time ; twilight came and he was still absorbed; 
suddenly he heard the shooting of distant bolts, and 
realized that evening had come and he was locked in 
with the dead. He could hear the sound of retreat- 
ing footsteps. He ran to the great oaken door and 
beat upon it. He cried aloud. Silence! He was alone 
with the dust of the mighty. It was an awful night. 
The next morning they found him lying senseless 
upon the pavement. A single day of such bewilder- 
ing anguish the world knew while Jesus lay in his 
sepulchre. The ruined race was imprisoned with its 
dead. The dead were everywhere. A long proces- 
sion had been passing from life into God's acre from 
the infancy of time. Kings and potentates and hum- 
ble folk lay under the pyramids, on the shelves of 
catacombs, in graveyards, on the bottom of the sea, 
or swept in dust clouds over the desert. They had 
passed in endless procession under the lintel of the 
dungeon, and, last of all, this Jesus of Nazareth, who 
had claimed to be the only begotten Son of God. 

The next morning bright and early, a woman 
threaded her way along the streets of Joseph's gar- 
den — a broken-hearted woman ; her best friend was 
dead. He who had spoken to her as she passed along 
the streets, her garments bedraggled in the mire, her 
womanhood all soiled with sin, saying, "Come unto 
me, weary, heavy-laden one, and I will give you rest." 
He had dispossessed her of the Evil One, and she 
loved him beyond all telling , but he, alas ! was dead. 
And there fell in with her certain other women who 
bore spices for the anointing, and they said : "Who 
will roll us away the stone from the sepulchre?" 
But as they drew near, behold, the stone had been 



278 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



rolled away and an angel spake to them : " Ye seek 
Jesus which was crucified : he is not here ; he is risen. 
Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Her com- 
panions turned and ran to carry the tidings, but she, 
lingering, heard a voice, " Why weepest thou ? Whom 
seekest thou?" She turned and saw Jesus; but, 
thinking him to be the gardener, she said : " Sir, if 
thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast 
laid him." "Mary!" It was the voice of the Beloved. 
She fell at his feet, crying " Rabboni! " which is to 
say, " My Master! " Then she ran also, to tell the 
tidings. There was much running at this time, even 
as there was much singing at the advent of our Lord. 
On the evening of that day the disciples were met in 
the upper chamber, and into the midst he himself 
came, saying, "It is I." Then joy unspeakable took 
the place of disappointment. The day of sorrow had 
said, " If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain " ; but 
the day of the resurrection sang to them, " Now is 
Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits 
of them that slept. So is come to pass the saying 
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 

Let us also come and see the place where the Lord 
lay ; for this open sepulchre is a determining factor 
in the problem of life and destiny. 

I. // establishes the Christhood of Jesus. 

(1) It had been prophesied that a virgin should 
conceive and bear a son and call his name " Im- 
manuel," which is, being interpreted, " God with us " ; 
that he should take upon himself the sorrows of the 
human race and be himself a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with griefs ; that he should be wounded for 
our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that 
by his stripes we might be healed. 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 279 

(2) Jesus of Nazareth claimed that he was this 
long-looked-for One. He said it to the woman of 
Samaria, " I that speak unto thee am he." He said 
it in the synagogue at Nazareth, " The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to 
heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set 
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac- 
ceptable year of the Lord. This day is this scripture 
fulfilled in your ears." He said it to the Scribes 
and Pharisees, " I and the Father are one." And 
they took up stones to stone him. He said it to those 
who boasted of their descent from Abraham, "Before 
Abraham was, I am," in this way assuming the inef- 
fable name which had been revealed to Moses at the 
burning bush. He said it to the judge in answer to 
the frank question, " Art thou the expected King of 
Israel ? " " Thou sayest it." 

(3) He rested his title to divinity upon the truth 
of his resurrection, and proved it. His enemies 
clamored for a sign ; he said, " I will destroy this 
temple and in three days rear it again " ; and this he 
spake of his body. Again they clamored for a sign, 
and he answered, " I will give you no sign but that of 
Jonah ; three days in darkness, and then life and im- 
mortality brought to light." 

In Schliemann's excavations among the ruins of 
ancient Mycenae, he came upon a royal tomb. The 
noble rank of its inmate was betrayed by many infal- 
lible tokens, but chiefly by a golden mask, a rusted 
sword and a dented shield. He concluded that this 
was the grave of Agamemnon, who was known as the 
King of Men. The mask was here, but where was the 



28o 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



face ? The shield was here, but where was the hand 
that held it ? The sword was here, but where was 
Agamemnon's right arm? A handful of dust. Had 
Christ been suffered to abide in the tomb, his flesh 
seeing corruption, who would have believed that he 
had upon his vesture and upon his thigh a name 
written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords ? Where- 
fore it is written, " He hath showed himself to be 
the Son of God with power by his resurrection from 
the dead." 

II. His resurrection also proves that the doctrine of 
Jesus is true. In his preaching he not only touched 
upon the great verities, the problems that reach out 
into eternity, but he hung them together like a chain, 
so that the whole system of truth depends upon his 
victory over death. What are the essential parts of 
the doctrinal system which he has given us ? 

(1) An immanent God. God dwells in the world 
which he has created. 

(2) Revelation. God has declared himself in the 
Incarnate Word, as it is written : " The Word was 
made flesh and dwelt among us." And, also, in the 
Written Word, as the Master said : " Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
these are they which testify of me." 

(3) The doctrine of man. Man born of God with 
the geometry of heaven in his brain, heir to a noble 
birthright, ever conscious, as Plato said, " of the mov- 
ing of wings within him." 

(4) Human responsibility. This Teacher held up 
a light that shone into the heart and conscience of 
all men and showed them to be sinners. He pointed 
to the sure penalty of sin in the gnawing of an undying 
worm and the pain of an unquenchable fire. And he 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



28l 



placed man at an infinite distance from his Father 
when he declared : " Except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God." 

(5) The blood atonement. He pointed to the sac- 
rifices which had been offered all along history from 
the time of Abel, and declared that they were all ful- 
filled in him as the Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world. He affixed to the benefits of the great 
sacrifice a single condition, to-wit: " He that believeth, 
shall be saved." This is the historic doctrine of Justi- 
fication by Faith. 

(6) The Holy Ghost. When he breathed upon 
his disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" 
— for your enlightenment, your building up in char- 
acter and your qualification for service — he set up a 
New Economy. This was practically the founding 
of the Church upon the rock of his own divine 
authority ; the great organism through which the 
Holy Ghost is working toward the restitution of 
all things. 

(7) Eternal life. He opened the windows of 
heaven and bade us believe in the joys of the Father's 
house. To die is not to cease to be. This he him- 
self demonstrated and made doubly sure, when he 
rose from the dead as the first fruits of them that 
slept. 

It is said that Faraday, in his wandering among 
the Alps, came upon a rural graveyard where the 
peasants of the neighboring village had laid away 
their humble friends. One grave he found marked 
by an uninscribed slab ; over it was a roof beneath 
which was fastened a bit of parchment with a name 
upon it. But nature had contributed just there a 
sweeter philosophy of life — an empty chrysalis. The 



282 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



caterpillar had been transformed into a butterfly 
which had taken its flight. And Faraday says, as he 
left the little graveyard his heart was filled with a 
new confidence, that God would bring light out of 
darkness and life out of the sorrow of the tomb. 

All these doctrines are fulfilled in the resurrection 
of Christ. Without that, his teaching would have 
been as vain as that of the old missionary, who, being 
blind and demented, was furnished with a pen and an 
empty inkstand, so that he wrote continually, yet 
said nothing. But, blessed be God ! the seal of 
divinity is put upon all that Jesus said ; and we may 
with an unfaltering voice repeat our historic creed : 
"I believe in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his 
Son. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic 
Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of 
sins, the resurrection of the body and the life ever- 
lasting. Amen." 

III. The empty sepulchre of Jesus proves the effective- 
ness of his work. His enemies who stood about the 
cross, saw him in the anguish of death, heard his last 
cry, "It is finished!" and went their way, saying, 
"We shall hear no more of the Man of Nazareth." 
Hear no more of him ? A few of his humble fol- 
lowers are going down out of the upper chamber to 
bear the tidings of his resurrection to the nations of 
the earth. We close our eyes for three centuries and 
open them, and lo, the red cross banner is waving 
above the eagles of Rome. We close our eyes again 
for three hundred years and open them, and lo, from 
Italy a monk is bearing the gospel across the channel 
into Britain, where a fierce-eyed people, clad in skins 
and wielding clubs, will hearken to him. We close 
our eyes for thirteen hundred years and open them, 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



283 



and lo, four hundred millions of people are under the 
sway of the gospel of Christ ! 

Of two things I am personally made certain by 
this resurrection of my Lord : First, My own salvation. 
The spectres death and hell would else have haunted 
me forever, the king of terrors with his gleaming spear 
and the prince of darkness with his mocking of 
human hopes. But if Christ be risen, these are as 
harmless as the ghosts of, our morning dreams ; for 
" there is now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus." "He was delivered for our offences 
and raised again for our justification." If we were re- 
deemed by his death, how much more shall we be saved 
by his life. Second. My commission. I know that I 
am called and that my labor is not in vain. No 
sooner did the disciples learn that Jesus was verily 
risen from the dead than they plucked up courage to 
face the gleaming axe, the fagots, the lions of the 
amphitheatre. Nothing could appall them now, be- 
cause they knew that he who had been dead, was 
alive and liveth forever more. A monk knelt under 
a crucifix, gazing through tears at the dead Christ. 
Suddenly the flesh of the Crucified One assumed 
a life-like hue, the dull eyes shone, the lips moved. 
"Weep no more," they said ; " I have work for thee ; 
go, minister to the poor and heavy-hearted ; go, de- 
clare the unsearchable riches of the gospel, and lo, I 
am with you." The same word comes to us, " Go, 
evangelize, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." 

It is related that when the chief priests and Phari- 
sees came to Pilate asking that the sepulchre of Jesus 
might be made sure " lest his disciples should come 
by night and steal him away," he answered, "Go, 



284 



THE OPEN SEPULCHRE. 



make it as sure as you can." Ay, make it sure. Lift up 
your hands and stay the glory of the rising sun ! Go 
down to the shore at ebb-tide and mark a boundary 
in the sand and say to the ocean, " Thus far and no 
farther"! Purse your lips and breathe against 
Euroclydon and send him whimpering to his cave ! 
"So they went and made the sepulchre sure, rolling 
a great stone before it and sealing the stone and set- 
ting a watch." The night wore on ; to and fro paced 
the sentinels before the tomb ; on a sudden the 
ground began to tremble under their feet. A crash ! 
The rocks reeled and tottered and were rent asunder. 
A vivid flash from heaven. The guards fell to the 
earth as dead men. Then from yonder shining 
heights, a troop of angels glided down ; the stone was 
rolled away and the King came forth wiping the grave 
mold from his brow. And then the angels thronged 
his chariot wheels and bore him aloft, to receive 
again the glory which he had with the Father before 
the world was. And far in the distance are voices : 
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, 
ye everlasting doors, and let the King of glory enter 
in !" 

Wherefore, comfort one another with these words: 
" He that was dead is alive and liveth forevermore." 
So is come to pass the saying that is written, " Death 
is swallowed up in victory." "The sting of death is 
sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be 
to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 



I AM DEBTOR. 

" I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ; both to the wise, and 
the unwise."— Rom. i. 14. 

It is debt that " makes the world go round." Debt 
is synonymous with credit, and credit means confi- 
dence, and confidence is identical with faith, and faith 
is a saving grace. The principle here involved un- 
derlies the industries of nations. Our banking sys- 
tem rests upon it ; for every man who makes a de- 
posit gives evidence of confidence in his fellow-men. 
It is credit that turns the wheels of our great factories 
and sets our ships a-sailing on the sea. There is 
no such thing as debt or credit in Zululand. An 
acre of land for a string of beads — spot cash. Where 
you find civilization, you find mutual confidence. 
Credit is a magic word. The fact which it expresses 
is one, however, of the most delicate character ; rest- 
ing on the right relation of assets and liabilities, it 
must ever be handled with care. Touch it unwisely 
and you have financial embarrassment. Touch it 
again and you get "hard times." Touch it yet again 
and you have bankruptcy — the red flag and the 
sheriff's hammer. Destroy it, and you get a measure 
of barbarism — a return to Zululand, 

An insolvent debtor is the most miserable of men. 
There was Daniel Defoe who was ever overwhelmed 
with debt, pursued from morn till night by duns, 

(285) 



2 86 



I AM DEBTOR. 



spending a large portion of his life in a debtor's jail. 
The jail was his island of Juan Fernandez, and "Robin- 
son Crusoe " was but a parable of the lonely misery of 
insolvency. And there was Oliver Goldsmith who 
was dunned by his landlady, dunned by his milk- 
woman, dunned by his tailor ; fleeing up one street 
when his duns were coming down another. Pursued 
all day by his creditors, and retiring at night to be 
ridden by the nightmare of debt. The bill for 
that famous suit which he wore at Boswell's dinner — 
that " ratteen suit lined with satin, and bloom-colored 
breeches " — was sent in after poor Noll was laid out for 
his burial and there was nothing wherewith to pay 
it. A sad tribute was that which one of his contem- 
poraries paid to his memory : " Was ever poet so 
trusted before ? " 

It was a wise thing, therefore, that John 
Randolph said : " I have found the philosopher's 
stone. It is, Pay as you go." And it was a wise 
thing that Horace Greeley said : "Young man, if you 
have only fifty cents, do not run into debt ; but buy 
a peck of corn and parch it and eat it and sleep the 
sleep of an honest man." 

Yet here is Paul the Apostle confessing that he 
was over ears in debt, and not ashamed of it. Paul, 
of all men ! It was he who protested that he would 
not be chargeable to any man ; and in pursuance of 
that manifesto, he labored with his own hands at his 
trade of tent-making, while he went about preaching 
the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. As to that 
cloak which he had left at Troas, it is safe to say that 
wherever he purchased it, he paid cash for it. And 
as to that hired house of his in Rome, we may be 
quite sure that the rent was paid. When this man 



I AM DEBTOR. 



287 



died, after fighting his good fight, there was no es- 
tate to settle and there were no unpaid bills. He died 
square, with the world, not chargeable to any man. 
Yet he protests here, that he was hopelessly in debt, 
and that his business in life, going about upon his 
missionary journeys, was simply to cancel that debt. 
He lived to pay it. The character of Paul was not 
unlike that of the Village Blacksmith of whom Long- 
fellow wrote : 

" His brow is wet with honest sweat; 
He earns whate'er he can ; 
He looks the whole world in the face, 
For he owes not any man." 

It is important to enquire respecting this debt to 
which the Apostle makes reference ; for, indeed, it is 
an obligation which rests upon all, certainly upon 
all who profess to love and follow our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

I. What was if? We may find an explanation in 
another part of Paul's letter to the Romans, in which 
he says, " Owe no man anything, but to love one an- 
other. " This debt is synonymous with the word "duty" 
spelled in the original way, due-ty. The reference is 
to an obligation which rests upon every man with 
respect to all his fellow-men. We have it again in 
the word " ought" — a word of tremendous signifi- 
cance in which are comprehended all the common 
duties of life. In one of Joseph Cook's lectures on 
u Conscience " he says: "Sum up the globes as so 
much silver, and the suns as so much gold, and cast 
the hosts of heaven as diamonds on a necklace into 
one scale, and if there is not there any part of the 
word Ought — if Ought is absent in the one scale and 
present in the other — up will go your scale laden 



288 



I AM DEBTOR. 



with the universe, as a crackling paper scroll is car- 
ried aloft in a conflagration ascending towards the 
stars. For God is in the word Ought, and therefore 
it outweighs all but God." 

II. How was this debt incurred '? It came upon 
us originally by reason of our creation in the like- 
ness of God j for by this we are made members 
of a great family, bound to all our kinspeople by 
an obligation of mutual love and helpfulness. It is 
emphasized by divine providence. Not only did God 
create us in his own likeness and after his image, but 
he sustains us every moment of the day. In him we 
live and move and have our being. The air that we 
breathe is his ; the sunlight that gladdens our eyes 
is his ; the water that we drink is his ; the food upon 
our tables is his ; all good gifts are from the Father 
of Lights. I know a wayward lad, who, growing 
restive under parental restraint, ran away from his 
home. He had been well cared for, but nothing was 
good enough for him. When he stole away, with a 
bundle over his shoulder, to shift for himself, he was 
a plump fellow with rosy cheeks, wearing a neat 
jacket and with a tidy outfit generally. He was gone 
sixty days. He came back in rags and tatters, with 
sunken cheeks, and looking as if he had been drawn 
through a wringer. He had made up his mind that 
his home was reasonably comfortable, and that his 
father was a pretty good father after all. How would 
it be with us, if we could get away from our Father's 
care for a little while, for sixty days or for as many 
minutes, say ? We should probably be glad to return 
to his bed and board. Providence would mean more 
to us, and we should be ready, in all likelihood, to 
acknowledge the responsibility involved in it. 



I AM DEBTOR. 



289 



But we come into a further indebtedness still by 
reason of the divine grace. We profess to be Chris- 
tians. O the unspeakable gift ! O the riches of the 
heavenly grace ! The goodness of God is a casket of 
jewels, but brighter than all is the Koh-i-noor of sal- 
vation. 

" Buried in sorrow and in sin, 
At hell's dark door we lay ; 
But we arise by grace divine 
To see a heavenly day." 

What shall we render unto the Lord for all this lov- 
ing kindness and tender mercy ? Duty, is the answer. 
I will take the cup of his salvation and pay unto him 
my vows. 

III. To whom is this debt owed 2 In the first place, 
obviously, to God himself. But he has made out a bill 
of charges bearing a personal endorsement which 
transfers the payment to our fellow-men. It need 
scarcely be said that we can tender him no remunera- 
tion for his kindness to us. We cannot add to his 
essential glory ; we cannot increase the sum total of 
his infinite exchequer ; but we can meet our indebt- 
edness to him by extending his goodness toward all. 
So it is written : " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me." 

We are, therefore, debtors to all men. This is dis- 
tinctly a Christian thought. The pagan idea was 
well expressed by the philosopher Hierocles, who out- 
lined his conception of relative duty in a series of 
concentric circles. A point at the centre represented 
himself ; the inner circle stood for his home and kins- 
folk ; the next for his townsmen ; the next for his 
fellow-countrymen ; and the outermost circle repre- 



290 



I AM DEBTOR. 



sented the world beyond. The same conception finds 
expression in the familiar proverb, "Charity begins at 
home "; the meaning being, that a man shall primarily 
look out for himself, then for his kinsmen — "Me and 
my wife, my son John and his wife ; us four and no 
more" — then with an ever-decreasing sense of re- 
sponsibility for all the rest of his fellow-men. If this 
thought had prevailed in the mind of Dr. Livingstone, 
he never would have gone to Africa, and the dark 
continent with its habitations of cruelty would not 
have been opened up to civilization and the gospel of 
Christ; Carey would never have gone to India; 
Adoniram Judson would never have gone to Burmah ; 
Hans Egede would never have gone to Greenland ; 
the Apostle Paul would never have crossed the Hel- 
lespont in answer to the Macedonian call, and Europe 
would have continued under the sway of the pagan 
religions ; and Augustine would never have gone 
over to Britain to preach to our ancestors, and this 
would have left us, in all probability, still clothed in 
skins as they were, and getting our living with stone 
knives and bludgeons. 

Nay, more, if that proverb in its usual acceptation 
had commended itself to Jesus Christ, he never would 
have come all the way from heaven in order to de- 
liver our ruined race from its bondage of sin. It is 
true that when he commanded his disciples to go 
into all the world to preach the gospel, he added, 
" beginning at Jerusalem " ; but as his subsequent 
words showed, he intended that they should remain 
at Jerusalem only long enough to receive the baptism 
of the Holy Ghost, that so they might be endued 
with power for the universal propagation of the gos- 
pel, " Go ye into all the world " ; in this, indeed, we 



I AM DEBTOR. 



291 



find the true definition of our debt. And it is laid 
not only upon ministers in holy orders, but upon all 
those who follow the Lord Christ. Go ye, person- 
ally if you can ; in any case, by proxy, sending out 
your love, your sympathy, your prayers, your contri- 
butions, until up to the full measure of your influence 
you shall have done your utmost to evangelize the 
world. The prayer of David is the prayer for us : 
"O God, enlarge our hearts ! " Enlarge our hearts 
until we shall be able to say as Wesley did, " The 
world is my parish." Enlarge our hearts until we 
shall understand that our neighbors are not merely 
those who dwell next door, but Jew and Greek, bond 
and free, all the children of men. 

This was Paul's understanding of the matter, and 
this was why he went about everywhere preaching 
the Gospel. What was he doing at Philippi in the 
congregation of women that gathered for prayer by 
the river side? He was seeking to pay his debt. 
What was he doing at Ephesus among his fellow 
tent-makers ? at Athens, when he declared the gospel 
to the philosophers sitting on the stone steps of 
the Areopagus below him ? in the palace at Caesarea, 
where, with a chain upon his wrist, he spoke of right- 
eousness, temperance and judgment, to kings and 
their paramours ? at Jerusalem, when he addressed 
the mob from the stairway of the castle of Antonia ? 
on shipboard, where, amid the whistling of the tem- 
pest, he spoke to the sailors of his faith ? or in Rome, 
where in the Praetorian Camp and in the Mamertine 
jail he indited epistles and spoke of salvation to his 
guards ? He was discharging his debt like an honest 
man. "Woe is me," cried he, "if I preach not the 
gospel! Necessity is laid upon me, for I am debtor to 
every man." 



292 



I AM DEBTOR. 



IV. What shall we do about it 7 The first thing to 
do, is to acknowledge the debt. This is a mere matter 
of common ethics. We are to use our talents, our 
physical energies, our possessions, as remembering 
that God is the giver of all. 

There are three kinds of people outside of the 
church and within it. (1) Tramps. They come to 
your back door with a petition for food and a pathetic 
tale of better days. Give them something to do in 
the wood-yard, and presently they have folded their 
tents like the Arabs and silently stolen away. A 
tramp is one who has no occupation, no money and 
no responsibility His aphorism is, " The world owes 
me a living." He owes nobody anything. He takes 
the goods the gods provide and asks no questions 
for conscience' sake. There is a class of people in 
the Christian Church who seem to entertain a similar 
conception of life. They are in the Church for the 
purpose of securing salvation, that is, deliverance 
from eternal death, and ethical culture for building up 
in character. Beyond that they seem to have little 
concern. 

(2) Embezzlers. That is, men who appropriate to 
their personal use funds which are simply entrusted 
to their care. Such was the farmer who, having been 
prospered, said : " What shall I do ? I am rich 
and increased in goods and have need of nothing. 
This will I do : I will tear down my barns and 
build greater, and I will say to my soul, 'Soul, 
thou art very prosperous ; take thine ease ; eat, drink, 
and be merry ' ; for what is there better under the 
sun than that a man should enjoy his life ? " But he 
left God, his great creditor, out of the reckoning and 
a voice intruded upon his reflections : " Thou fool, 



I AM DEBTOR. 



293 



this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then 
what about the goods which thou callest thine own ?" 
A dead man — a contested will — an estate torn asun- 
der — a property scattered like chaff before the winds. 
So passes away the glory of the man who uses for 
his own benefit that which does not belong to him. 
As Christian people, we profess to believe that all 
we have belongs to God. If there is anything 
more than empty sentiment in that statement, then 
we are not honest in devoting our energies to selfish 
uses. " Will a man rob God?" Shall we be less 
honest in our dealings with him than we are with 
our fellow-men? "Yet ye have robbed me," saith 
the Lord. "But wherein have we robbed thee?" 
" In tithes and offerings." 

(3) Trustees. Our Lord made a last will and tes- 
tament in which he left the unsearchable riches of the 
gospel to all men. These riches are entrusted to us 
for distribution. An honest trustee feels and ac- 
knowledges that he is debtor to every legatee. It is 
his business to see that every heir who is mentioned 
in the will shall receive his full share of the inherit- 
ance. This is his business as an honest man. Our 
Lord's heirs are everywhere. They are in the slums 
of the great city. They are out upon the frontiers 
of the land. They are dwelling by the banks of the 
Congo. It is our business, unless we are prepared to 
throw up our trusteeship, to see that the riches en- 
trusted to us for distribution shall reach all men. 

It is written that on a certain occasion our Lord, 
seeing the multitude an-hungered, had compassion on 
them, and having seated them on the grassy slopes, 
he multiplied the loaves. He then called upon his 
twelve disciples to distribute them. It so happened 



294 



I AM DEBTOR. 



that there were twelve baskets there, one for each 
disciple. It is easy to imagine that Peter, on receiv- 
ing his basket of food, would think of his wife and 
children at home ; he had been their bread-winner, 
but had given up all to follow Christ. Let us sup- 
pose that he said to himself, " It may be that 
these dear ones of mine are in need. A man that 
careth not for his own household is worse than an 
infidel. I will keep this basket of food for them." 
And, presently, John, as he was going with his basket, 
met his brother James who bore a similar burden and 
said to him, " How grateful this food would be to our 
old father and mother on the lake shore. They no 
longer have us to lean on, and possibly they are in 
want. Why shall we not keep these baskets for them ? 
Does not charity begin at home?" And so all the 
twelve might have reasoned within themselves. Under 
such circumstances, how long would it have taken to 
feed that multitude ? But is not this precisely the 
method in which many of us are pursuing the Master's 
work ? The living bread is not ours for personal 
consumption merely ; it was broken on Calvary and 
multiplied for the use of the whole world. We are 
simply the intermediaries through whom the Lord 
distributes it. 

So, having recognized our indebtedness for Jesus' 
sake to all our fellow-men, the next thing to do is to 
discharge it. I have a friend who, ten years ago, lost 
all his earthly wealth ; at that time he made some 
sort of compromise with his creditors, but expressed 
his purpose to ultimately pay them all. Not long 
ago he called upon me and said, "I have just paid 
the last dollar that I owed. I have nothing left ex- 
cept a good conscience and a resolute purpose ; I 



I AM DEBTOR. 



295 



never was so happy in my life." And I grasped his 
hand and reminded him of what Robert Burns had 
said : 

"An honest man, though ne'er so poor, 
Is king o' men, for a' that." 

Sir Walter Scott, in building his beautiful home 
at Abbotsford, brought himself under an overwhelm- 
ing burden of debt. He did not despair, however, 
but devoted the remainder of his life to meeting his 
obligations. He wrote unceasingly, and gave no rest 
to his weary brain. When friends remonstrated, he 
asserted his determination to live and die an 
honest , man. Stricken with palsy, he was often 
tempted to rest, but would cry, " This is folly, bring 
me my pens and paper ! " He died at last, leaving 
a square balance sheet. We revere the memory of 
such men. 

O that we were as sensitive to the common rule of 
ethics in our relations with God, as we are in our 
dealings with our fellow-men ! When we fully recog- 
nize the fact of our indebtedness to all, and when the 
universal Church shall, with a resolute purpose, set 
about discharging the debt, the end will be near. 
Maranatha will be a fact accomplished. The king- 
doms of this world will have become the kingdom of 
Christ. The nations are waiting for this. They are 
waiting to see in Christian people more evidence of 
their belief that faith in the gospel is necessary to 
eternal life. They are waiting to behold in us an all- 
consuming zeal for the spread of the glad tidings 
and the deliverance of the world. 

When the Moravian missionaries went to Green- 
land, they were unable during the first year to make 
any impression whatever. Then came an epidemic 



296 



I AM DEBTOR. 



of small-pox, in which multitudes were prostrated, 
and the missionaries went about among them, min- 
istering to body and soul in the Master's name. 
After that the way was clear. The people said, " You 
have nursed us in our sickness ; you have cared for 
us in our friendless distress ; you have buried our 
dead, when the dogs and ravens would have de- 
voured them ; now tell us of your religion. For, 
from this time forward, your God shall be our God." 

The spirit of self-denial in behalf of others is the 
spirit that will win the world yet. Go, preach the 
gospel, therefore. Go, pay your honest debt of grati- 
tude to God. Go, deliver to your neigbors near and 
far, the message of life which God has entrusted to 
you. Be mindful of all his loving kindness and 
tender mercies and of the grateful service which 
should follow them. What shall I render unto the 
Lord for his goodness? I will take of the cup of his 
^salvation, and pay unto him my vows. 



ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY 



CHURCH. 

" And Simon Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for 
flesh and b'ood hath not revealed ic unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven. But I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
—Matt. xvi. 16-18. 

This passage is fighting ground ; on it have been 
waged long campaigns of controversy. " On this 
rock will I build my church. ' What rock ? The 
Romish Church says, " Peter. What could be plainer? 
Does not Petros mean a rock ? " Here is the founda- 
tion of the Papacy. Around the inner border of the 
dome of St. Peter s runs this passage in letters of gold: 
"Thou art Peter and on this rock will I build my 
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it." 

But the rock here referred to is not Peter, for the 
following reasons : 

First, Our text does not say so. The words Petros 
and fietra, or rock, are not identical ; the former is 
masculine, the latter is feminine ; one is a rock, the 
other a stone. Here is indeed a play upon words. 
In response to Peter's declaration, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God," the Master said, 
" Blessed art thou, Simon Son of Jonah : for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed this wonderful truth to thee, 

(297) 



298 ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 

but my Father which is in heaven hath revealed it. 
And I say unto thee, upon this rock I will build my 
church and thou shalt receive a new name, Petros, a 
stone hewn out of the rock, because thou hast an- 
nounced it." 

The Apostle John, who was the intimate friend of 
Peter, was called Theologus, from the fact that he 
was an instructor in theology, his system being, 
substantially, this: "God is love." The Master 
might have said to him, " Thou art Theologus and 
on this theology of thine will I build my church and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

The Apostle James, brother of John, was an evan- 
gelist in that he declared the evangel of salvation. 
The Master might have said to him, had occasion 
called for it, " Thou art James, son of Zebedee ; thou 
shalt be called the Evangelist, and upon thine evangel 
will I build my church and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." 

Our second ground for rejecting the interpreta- 
tion which makes Peter the rock-foundation of the 
church, is its utter unreasonableness. The Church is 
the great organism through which God is working 
for the deliverance of the world from sin. It would 
be preposterous to suppose that God would found 
this institution upon a man — a fallible man — and 
Peter of all fallible men. 

Why are the nymphs weeping by all the brooks 
and rivers of the earth ? The Romans would say, 
Because of the sorrow that befell Phaethon. And 
what was that ? He besought of Apollo the privilege 
of driving the chariot of the sun for a single day 
and it was granted him. He grasped the lines 
and spoke to the fiery steeds. Away they sped 



ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 299 



among the glittering worlds, colliding with stars 
and planets until all space was filled with flying 
sparks ; then in mercy the father of the gods smote 
him with a thunderbolt and he fell dead by the river 
side. The old fable is a mere silhouette of the chaos 
and confusion that would long ago have resulted in the 
moral universe, had God abdicated his sovereignty 
over the church and allowed Peter to take the reins ; 
but happily that he never did. 

What then was this rock ? The good confession 
which Peter made, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." At this time our Lord was pursuing 
his journey through Caesarea-Philippi, his face set 
steadfastly toward the cross. He greatly desired his 
disciples to be informed as to his divine character 
and mission, but as yet they had not been able to 
bear it. He was now moved to inquire, "Who do 
men say that I am?" To this they gave various 
answers. " But," he questioned, " Who say ye that 
I am ?" Then Peter witnessed his good confession : 
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
It was pursuant to these words that Jesus said, 
" Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee " ; giving him 
his new name Petros, in recognition of his valorous 
words. 

The truth here announced was in the nature of a 
great discovery. The disciples knew indeed that 
Jesus was a wonderful personage, for they had heard 
his sermons, had seen his miracles, and had taken 
note of his unique character. But it remained for 
Peter to discern the fullness of the truth : " Thou art 
the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, whom 
kings and prophets longed to see and died without 



300 ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 



the sight ; thou art the Christ, from all eternity 
ordained and anointed to save the people from their 
sins." The heart of Balboa stood still with amaze- 
ment when, from the crags of Panama, he saw the 
Pacific Ocean stretching far into the distance. A 
marvelous discovery indeed, but not comparable with 
this which burst upon the ravished vision of Simon 
Son of Jonah. It was the mightiest of all truths. In 
it were wrapt up the incarnation, the atonement and 
the resurrection. It had been hidden from the eyes 
of the wise and prudent, to be revealed to this fisher- 
man. The Rabbis had not apprehended it ; Jesus of 
Nazareth seemed to them as a root out of a dry 
ground and there was no beauty that they should 
desire him. The philosophers by the Ilyssus little 
dreamed that this Jesus walking before their eyes was 
the veritable Son of God ; their eyes were holden that 
they could not see it. But Simon Peter grasped the 
glorious truth. The garment of this Nazarene 
prophet, a man of the people, the King of Kings dis- 
guised in flesh, fluttered aside for an instant and his 
royal ermine was disclosed to view. Now all his 
miracles were clear as day ; the secret of his won- 
drous sermons was explained, and of his life per- 
fect in all manly graces. The great discovery was 
made. Eureka! "Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the Living God." 

I. This interpretation of the words of Jesus making 
his own headship to be the foundation of his Church, is 
consonant with reason. It is respectfully submitted that 
the othei view making Peter the rock, is not reasonable. 
The history of the church is written in two volumes : 
one entitled Sinai, the other Calvary. 

The Law was given on Mt. Sinai and formed thf 



ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 3OI 

basis of the Old Economy. That law was written 
by the finger of God himself, the same God who 
afterwards, robed in flesh, endured the agony of the 
cross. He stood in the midst of that economy of 
law, the rock-foundation of the ancient church. It 
would be preposterous to say that Moses was the 
foundation of that church since his only connection 
with the law was that of an intermediary who carried 
the tables down the mountain side, and broke them 
by the way. 

The Gospel was proclaimed from Calvary, written 
by the pierced hand of God himself ; the incarnate 
God who stood then and stands forever in the midst 
of that gospel, the rock-foundation of the Christian 
Church. And what part does Peter take in this ? 
The part of a herald only, leading the little company 
of apostles, whose numbers were destined to be multi- 
plied into that great procession of evangelists whose 
feet are beautiful upon the mountains because they 
carry the glad tidings of life. Nor is there any 
warrant for interweaving the name of Peter with 
that of Christ in the primacy of the church. If 
Phidias was banished for placing his name in the 
corner of the shield of Athene, what shall be said of the 
presumption which places Peter in the seat of the 
only begotten Son of God ? 

II. The view here advanced is consonant with Scripture. 
The divine revelation is given in two volumes which 
we call the Old and the New Testament. The Old 
Testament is full of Christ from the protevangel in 
Eden, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head," on through psalm and prophecy un- 
til the Messianic word fades out in the expiring gleam 
of Malachi's torch. And where does Moses stand in 



302 ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 

this Old Testament ? In the midst of the camp with 
his hand uplifted toward the brazen serpent, the 
prophetic symbol of Christ crucified, crying, " Look 
and live ! " 

The New Testament likewise is full of Christ from 
its opening picture of the child in the manger to that 
vision of the Apocalypse where the great multitude 
encircle the throne of the Crucified One, singing, 
" Thou art worthy to receive honor and power and 
dominion, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed 
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us 
kings and priests unto God." And where stands 
Peter in the New Testament ? In the midst of the 
Pentecostal congregation, speaking not of himself, 
but of another : " Ye men of Israel, hear these words: 
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved among you by 
miracles and wonders and signs, him have ye taken 
and with wicked hands have crucified and slain ; 
whom God hath raised up, saying, Sit thou on my 
right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." 

Thus Christ is everything and Moses and Peter are 
nothing save as they wait upon him. As of old it had 
been written, " Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation 
a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure 
foundation : he that believeth, shall not make haste," 
so it was written in the Church of the new dispensa- 
tion, " Other foundation can no man lay than that 
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 

III. This view furthermore is consonant with history . 
In point of fact there never was a time when, by the 
great body of believers, Peter was regarded as the 
rock foundation of the Church, or as her primate, or 
as the Vicar of God. His primacy was disputed 



ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 303 



among the twelve when they contended as to which 
should be greatest in the kingdom of God. His 
authority, which never reached a claim of infallibility, 
was called in question when Paul withstood him to 
the face and his own co-presbyters decided against 
him. The man chosen to moderate the first of the 
great councils was not Peter, as would have been 
a logical necessity had he been regarded as primate, 
but James the pastor of the Jerusalem Church. 
In the Council at Nicea, a.d. 325, where the great 
controversy was respecting this very question, there 
was no mention of Peter's primacy, but everything 
centered in the headship of Christ. Nor indeed was 
the proposition of papal supremacy, founded on the 
primacy of Peter, ever formally suggested until the 
closing in of the shadows of the dark ages. Its 
formulation precipitated the Reformation. It was in 
the city of Rome, under the shadow of St. Peter's, 
that Luther, climbing the Sancta Scala, heard, as it 
were, a voice from heaven declaring to him the great 
doctrine of a standing or a falling church — the 
doctrine of Justification by Faith in the only begot- 
ten Son of God. In all this, history agrees with 
Scripture in the proposition that there is no primate 
whatsoever aside from Jesus Christ himself, except 
that Anti-Christ whom Paul calls the son of perdition, 
"who exalteth himself above all that is called God and 
as God sitteth in the temple of God and is worship- 
ped as God." 

From the proposition that the Church is founded 
upon the headship of Christ we proceed now to three 
important inferences : 

First. Here is the basis of Church Unity. All de- 
nominations are practically one in Christ and they 



304 ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 



are one in nothing else. In vain the recent ency- 
clical of Leo XIII. calls upon all the " separated " 
brethren to come under the aegis of Rome ; that is, 
in an acknowledgment of the primacy of Peter. In 
vain equally are all the manifestoes put forth by the 
Anglican Church looking to the union of all denom- 
inations upon the basis of the historic episcopate ; 
that is, the hierarchy proceeding from the Twelve as 
Vicars of God. The only lodestone in all the uni- 
verse which can gather up and bind together the 
various parts of the great fellowship, is Jesus Christ, 
who said, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
me." No church can be ruled out of the charmed 
circle if it acknowledges the supremacy of Jesus. 
There is already a practical and effective unity among 
all bodies of believers that can $ay, " One Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all." 

Second. The catholicity of the church also rests in this 
same proposition. No proclamation of good tidings 
can be of universal application unless it rests upon 
the universality of the grace of Jesus Christ. Who 
is Paul ? Or who is Apollos ? Or w T ho is Cephas ? 
Or who is Wesley ? Or who is John Calvin ? Or 
who is Leo XIII. ? Who are all these hierarchs ? Let 
Christ be all in all. There can be no substitution of 
the name of Peter for that of Jesus Christ on the 
cornerstone of the Church until it shall be announced 
from heaven, that God so loved the world that he 
gave Simon Bar-Jonah to redeem it. There can be no 
gathering of the nations under the shadow of the 
Vatican until it can be truthfully said, The blood of 
St. Peter cleanseth from all sin. 

Third. "ITere also is our assurance of the perpetuity of 
the Church. Because it rests upon the rock of ages, 



ON THIS ROCK WILL I BUILD MY CHURCH. 305 



the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The 
words of Luther at the dedication of the Wittemberg 
Chapel were wisely spoken : " Now must Christ be 
everything to us, and to whom Christ is everything 
all else is nothing. He is made unto us wisdom and 
righteousness and sanctiiication and redemption. 
He is all and in all." And because the Church is thus 
centred in the personality of Jesus, his word is her 
personal guarantee of safety. 

Oh where are kings and empires now, 

Of old that went and came ? 
But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet 

A thousand years the same. 

Unshaken as the eternal hills, 

Immovable she stands; 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 

An house not made with hands. 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



" And 1 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." — Matt. 16, 19. 

Here is a great truth, — a truth which has given 
rise to endless controversy. In the opinion of some, 
the words of Jesus on this occasion gave to Peter and 
his apostolic associates and successors a roving com- 
mission to take general charge of divine affairs. The 
destinies of the race were placed in their hands. It 
is for them to save or damn at will. God, having 
devised the plan of redemption and carried it out at 
an infinite expenditure on Calvary, was then pleased 
to turn over the whole matter to human hands. 

I do not believe it. There is something wrong 
with such an exposition of Scripture. 

The revolutionary tribunal of 1794 in France had 
power to arrest without complaint, try without jury, 
and convict without witnesses ; in consequence of 
such arbitrary exercise of power, no less than four- 
teen hundred victims died on the guillotine between 
the 10th of June and the 27th of July in that awful 
year. The life of the nation was at the absolute dis- 
posal of. Robespierre and his four confreres. The 
world stands aghast at such a concentration of power 
in the hands of mortal men. But this is a mere 
nothing, a bagatelle, in comparison with the power 
which is said to have been committed to the hands of 

(306) 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



307 



Peter and his associates ; for they had to do not 
merely with the life and estate of men, but with their 
eternal destiny ! 

The disciples did not so understand their com- 
mission. Nor did Peter himself so understand it. 
The nearest approach to the exercise of any such au- 
thority was in the case of Simon Magus, who had 
played the hypocrite during a great revival at 
Samaria, and had offered money in return for the 
charismata or special gifts of the Spirit of God. 
Then Peter said, " Thy money perish with thee." 
And the man was filled with sudden remorse. Now 
was Peter's chance. What did he say ? "Absolvote!" 
Oh, no : " Repent and pray God, if perhaps the 
thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee." 

Contrast that with the thing that happened at 
Canossa when Henry II., who had been deposed 
from his royal office, came over the Alps to entreat 
papal absolution. He presented himself at the 
gate of Gregory VII. and made his humble petition. 
He was ordered to remain at the gate and abstain 
from food ; he was further ordered to strip himself 
of the royal purple and put on hair-cloth. At the 
end of three weary days of penance, he was required 
to go into the presence of Pope Gregory and kiss his 
feet. Then, this Vicar of God was pleased to say, 
" Absolvo te." Can it for a moment be believed that 
God has abdicated his prerogative in this way ? 
Shall we not rather say that this papal assumption is 
a mere playing with holy things — a grim and blas- 
phemous farce ? 

The claim of the Romish Church to the power of 
plenary absolution, with its accessories, such as the 
confessional, the indulgence, the anathema, extreme 



3 o8 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



unction, the deliverance of souls from purgatory, 
rests upon three passages of Holy Writ. Let us take 
these up seriatim and do our best to arrive at the 
truth. 

The first of these scriptures is in Matt. xvi. 13-19: 

And Jesus asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say 
that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say, 
that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias j and others, 
Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, 
But who say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered 
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the livi7ig God. 
A?id Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar- Jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say 
also Ufito thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I 
will build my church j and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

The rock here referred to, which was to be the 
strong foundation of the Church, was the good con- 
fession of Peter : "Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." On this tremendous fact the Church 
was to be so established that the gates of hell should 
not prevail against it. In reward for the making of 
that good confession, Simon the son of Jonas received 
a new name, to wit, Peter ; meaning a stone hewn out 
of the rock. And he received a still further reward 
in the Power of the Keys. 

What are these keys ? (1) Certainly not the keys of 
heaven. The picture of St. Peter sitting at the gate 
of the celestial city, as a sort of ticket-taker, is a 
ludicrous perversion of the truth. There are indeed 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



no keys of heaven. The twelve gates are always 
open. If any of the souls that wander in eternal 
darkness should desire to enter, the way is clear ; but, 
alas ! their characters were so crystallized during 
their probationary term on earth that such an attempt 
is a moral impossibility. They cannot because they 
will not. The only reason why heaven is not invaded 
by the lost spirits is because it is an uncongenial 
place. Over its open gates are written, ''There shall 
in no wise enter anything that worketh abom- 
ination or maketh a lie ; but they which are writ- 
ten in the Lamb's Book of Life." But there is no 
other barrier, there is no warder, there are no keys. 

Nor (2) are the keys here referred to those of the 
invisible Church j that is, the great fellowship made up 
of all in earth and heaven whose names are written 
in the Lamb's Book of Life. With this church-roster 
neither Peter nor any other of the apostles nor any 
ecclesiastical council has aught to do. "And I saw, 
in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a 
book sealed with seven seals. And a strong angel 
proclaimed, Who is worthy to open the book and to 
loose the seals thereof ? And no man in heaven nor in 
earth, neither under the earth " — not Peter nor any 
other apostolic dignitary — " was able to open the 
book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much 
because no man was found worthy to open the book. 
And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not ; 
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed 
to open it. And they sang a new song, saying, Thou 
art worthy to take the book and to open the seals 
thereof . for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us 
unto God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



to be kings and priests unto our God." So then it is 
Christ who has charge of the roster of the invisible 
Church. This is in line with the prophecy of Isaiah: 
" The key of the house of David will I lay upon his 
shoulder." And, also, with the message to the Church 
in Philadelphia : " These things saith he that is holy, 
he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he 
that openeth and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and 
no man openeth ; I know thy works : behold, I have 
set before thee an open door, and no man shall 
shut it." 

These keys must, therefore, be (3) the keys of the visible 
Church. And this is an historic fact. As the reward 
of Peter's loyalty to the fundamental doctrine of the 
headship of Christ, he was commissioned to throw 
open the doors of the visible Church to the Gentile 
world. This occurred formally on the day of Pen- 
tecost. Up to that time the Jews alone, as a distinctly 
chosen people, had been included in the charmed 
circle. There was a middle wall of partition between 
them and all the nations of the earth ; but on that 
day when the Holy Ghost descended upon the com- 
pany assembled for prayer and when, in response to 
Peter's sermon on Christ crucified, the whole as- 
sembly — made up of Jews and Greeks, Parthians, 
Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, and rep- 
resentatives from every portion of the earth — cried 
out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter 
said, " Repent and be baptized every one of you in 
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your 
sins ; for the promise is unto you and to your children 
and to all them that are afar off ; even to as many 
as the Lord our God shall call." Thus the middle 
wall of partition was thrown down; the keys of 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



3" 



the visible Church were turned and the gates rolled 
back to admit all the penitent children of men. 

It is obvious that in this matter Peter stood 
solitary and alone. To speak of a line of successors 
would be as preposterous as to make a similar claim 
with respect to Columbus in the discovery of the new 
world. The gates of the Church were thrown open ; 
there was no further need of the keys because they 
were thrown open once for all. 

The second scripture referring to this matter is in 
Matt, xviii. 15-18. "If thy brother shall trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy 
brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee 
one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three wit- 
nesses every word may be established. And if he shall 
neglect to hear them, tell if unto the church: but if he 
neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an 
heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, 
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed i?i heaven.'" 

The power of binding and loosing, which had 
been conferred upon Peter in connection with the 
Power of the Keys, is here conferred upon the apos- 
tolic circle. And inasmuch as this commission was 
granted in immediate connection with the question 
of trespass within the Church, it is obvious that it 
refers to Church government. It is for the appointed 
officers of the Church to determine what rules shall 
prevail. This is the power of binding and loosing as 
it was understood in the Jewish Church; as when 
it was said, " Shammai bindeth and Hiilel looseth " ; 
or as Josephus says, with reference to certain ethical 



312 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



rules, "The Pharisees have power to bind and loose 
at will." The commission which was here granted 
to the apostolic circle involved a triple function : 

(1) The formulating of terms of admission to the 
Church. It is clear that there must be some authority 
to make doctrinal and ethical formularies which shall 
serve as conditions of church membership. And 
upon whom could this power be so appropriately 
conferred as upon that little circle which was the 
nucleus of the visible Church and constituted its 
formal government ? 

(2) The maintenance of order within the Church. This 
is done by the laying down of certain rules of right 
belief and conduct. This is properly called, binding 
and loosing. The Council at Jerusalem was called to 
settle the question as to what should be required of 
the Gentile Christians with respect to observances 
which the Jewish Christians regarded as obligatory. 
Paul and Peter having discussed that question, the 
Apostle James declared the judgment of the court, 
which was to this effect : that on the one hand the 
Gentile converts should abstain from pollutions of 
idols, from fornication, things strangled and blood ; 
but that on the other hand, the yoke of Jewish bond- 
age should be no further placed upon them. Here 
was a case in which the officers of the Church formally 
exercised the power of binding and loosing, and that 
same power rests in our ecclesiastical judicatories to 
this day. 

(3) The power to administer discipline. This, also, 
is necessary for the maintenance of order. A certain 
man in the Corinthian Church was accused of a 
nameless crime. He was probably of good social 
position, and his offence was winked at. Paul, how- 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



313 



ever, exhorts the Corinthian Church to deal sum- 
marily with him ; he exhorts them to meet " in the 
name of the Lord Jesus Christ" and bind this evil 
doer and deliver him over to Satan in the hope of his 
reclamation or " for the destruction of the flesh." Here 
is a case of judicial binding. It was what we call 
suspension or excommunication. The probability is 
that there ought to be a more frequent exercise of 
this power in the Church. A few years ago a man 
committed suicide in St. Paul's in London, and im- 
mediately it was announced that there would be a 
formal purging and reconsecration of the Church. 
But there are worse stains than the blood of a suicide 
in many of our churches, of which our ecclesiastical 
dignities should take knowledge ; for the Church is 
as a city set upon a hill whose light cannot be hid. 

The third scripture bearing upon the matter in 
hand is in John xx. 19-23. " The same day at evening, 
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut 
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, 
came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, 
Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed 
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples 
glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them 
again, Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, 
even so send I you. And when he had said this, he 
breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto 
them • and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 

Here we have the power of absolution. Observe 
it is conferred not only upon Peter and his fellow 
apostles nor only upon the officials of the Church. 
There were in the upper chamber at this time humble 
Christians who had received no honor save that of 



3i4 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



following Christ. Whatever then this "power of 
absolution " may be, it is vested in all believers alike. 

(1) There is no reference here to what is called judicial 
or plenary absolution j that power remains in divine 
hands, for who can forgive sins but God alone ? The 
wrong view of this commission is illustrated in the 
monk Tetzel who set up his booth at Jiiterbok and 
announced that he was prepared to grant indulgences. 
The most heinous of crimes could be shielded from 
retribution by the payment of a stipulated number of 
florins. He proposed, also, to deliver souls from 
purgatory for a consideration. Over the chest, pre- 
pared for the receiving of the coins, was written this 
legend : 

,; Soon as the coin within this chest doth ring, 
The soul shall straightway into heaven spring." 

How blasphemous ! How puerile ! What a prepos- 
terous interpretation of the Master's words ! And 
from a similar perversion have arisen all the historic 
crimes of the confessional and the anathema. The 
whole race of Huguenots was placed under the ban ; 
cursed in soul, body and estate ; doomed to death 
temporal and eternal. The tolling of the bells of St. 
Bartholomew marks the climax of this awful per- 
version of truth. Did ever Peter or any other of 
Christ's apostles claim such authority as this ? 

(2) The power conferred upon them and upon all 
believers in this word of Jesus was that of declarative ab- 
solution. This is perfectly clear when the circum- 
stances are taken into view. It was when his dis- 
ciples were met in the upper chamber with closed 
doors that he suddenly appeared among them saying, 
"Peace be unto you." He then added, "As the 
Father hath sent me into the world, so send I you." 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



315 



What for ? The Father hath sent him into the world 
to deliver the world from sin, as he said in the syna- 
gogue at Nazareth when he opened the Scriptures 
and read : "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, 
because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to 
the poor : he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering 
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord"; and continued, "This day is this scripture 
fulfilled in your ears." As he was sent to proclaim 
deliverance by the power of the great sacrifice on 
Golgotha, so are these sent to point the nations 
toward the cross. Here is the only absolution ; ab- 
solution by faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. And having thus spoken of their errand, he 
breathed on his disciples and said, " Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost." Here was their qualification for the 
great work of evangelization and then came the 
words, " Whose soever sins ye remit, they shall be 
remitted ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they shall 
be retained." The word of every believer, who an- 
nounces absolution in Jesus Christ, is ratified in 
heaven. The humblest of all Christians is commis- 
sioned to go, saying, " He that believeth in the Son 
hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not, the 
wrath of God abideth on him." That is, his sin shall 
be remitted or retained just as he accepts or rejects 
the proffer of mercy in the crucified son of God t 

(3) Here then a grave responsibility rests on us. 
The true apostolic succession is in this, that weareall 
sent and instructed precisely as the apostles were^ to declare 
absolution in Christ. The world will be converted 
when all Christians shall be faithful in this office. 



316 



THE POWER OF THE KEYS. 



Go ye everywhere and evangelize. We have power 
to convert, as it is written : " He that converteth a 
sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul 
from death, and hide a multitude of sins." We have 
power to remit sins in this, that we can point sinners 
to the saving power of the cross. And, alas ! it is for 
us also to "retain" the sins of the impenitent upon 
them, as we oftentimes do, by our neglect to warn 
them of the wrath to come and offer the pardoning 
grace of God. We are, in a sense, responsible for the 
destinies of men. The world lieth in darkness be- 
cause God awaits the faithfulness of his people. 
How long will the wheels of his chariot tarry ? Until 
you and I shall do our duty. 

A man on his death-bed recently confessed that 
a former friend of his had been five years in prison 
for a crime of which he was wholly innocent. 
The facts which would have released this prisoner at 
any moment, had long been in his possession, but 
personal considerations restrained him. He could not 
divulge what he knew without incriminating himself; 
so for five long years he had kept silence. There are 
souls in prison everywhere — all u concluded under 
sin " — we have in our possession the information that 
can release them. It is for us to open the prison 
doors and bid the oppressed go free. It is for us to 
declare absolution in the name of the Crucified One. 
Have we nothing to say ? Hear the word of the 
Lord : "If I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely 
die, and thou givest him no warning, he shall die in 
his sins, but his blood will I require at thy hand ' 
And hear again the word of the Lord : " They that 
be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as 
the stars forever and ever." 



MASQUERADING. 



" Why f eignest thou thyself to be another ? " — I. Kings xiv. 6. 

A queen disguised in the russet garb of a peasant, 
basket on arm, goes trudging wearily, afoot and alone, 
from the palace at Tirzah up to the prophet's house. 
She is the wife of Jeroboam, that Jeroboam who has 
come down through history marked with the stigma, 
" who made Israel to sin." There is trouble in 
the palace ; the first-born son, heir of the throne, 
lies at the point of death. The altars of Baal 
burn upon the heights, but there is no help there. 
God only can relieve, and to him the sore-hearted 
mother goes in her extremity. The seer Ahijah, old 
and blind, has long been alienated from the throne. 
In her peasant's mask, she hopes to deceive him and 
secure a blessing on her child. But he hears her 
coming ; he knows her footstep. " Come in," he 
cries at her approach ; " come in, thou wife of Jero- 
boam. Why f eignest thou thyself to be another?" 
"Thus," says Bishop Hall, " God laughs at the friv- 
olous tricks of foolish men who think to dance in their 
nets and be unseen of heaven." 

Life as a masquerade ending with a transforma- 
tion scene, " Masks off ! " — this is our lesson to-day. 

(317) 



3i8 



MASQUERADING. 



" All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players; 
They have their exits and their entrances; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages." 

" Great is paint ! " cries Carlyle. Fashion came 
in with the fall ; fashion is falsehood, and falsehood 
rules the world. We are none of us precisely what 
we seem to be. In one of Coleridge's letters he speaks 
of a state dinner at which he sat opposite a bald and 
venerable gentleman of most imposing presence : 
dome-like forehead and profound eyes, his whole 
appearance suggesting moral power. " If he would 
but speak," thought Coleridge, " what wisdom should 
we hear, what breathing thoughts in burning 
words." Suddenly the man spake: "Gi' me them 
dumplin's, will you ? Them's the jockeys for me." 
The oracle had been heard from and the spell was 
broken. We cannot determine the inward man from 
the outward appearance. Appearances deceive. 

Charles Lamb says, " The only honest men are 
beggars. The ups and downs of the world concern 
them not. The prices of stock or land affect them 
not. They are not expected to become bail or surety 
for any. No man troubles them with questions 
of religion or politics. They are never out of fash- 
ion nor limp awkwardly behind it. They put not 
on court mourning. They wear all colors, fearing 
none. They are the only people in the universe who 
are not obliged to study appearances." But even 
beggars have been known to be insincere. Can you 
trust the man who presents himself at your door with 
a plea for charity and a tale of better days ? Not 
long ago a beggar died in the upper end of Manhat- 



MASQUERADING. 



319 



tan Island, and his poverty was found to be a mere 
make-believe; for there was money under his mattress, 
money in the tea-pot, money on his mantel, money 
under the hearth, money in the ground under the 
rose bush. No, we cannot even trust our beggars ; 
the}'', too, are merely players. 

The Psalmist wrote, " I said in my haste, All men 
are liars " ; on which Adam Clarke quaintly remarked, 
" Had he lived in our time, he might have said it at 
his leisure." Where shall Diogenes go with his lan- 
tern to find a thoroughly honest man ? To the market 
place ? What a flutter there would be in the Chamber 
of Commerce if all its members were required to ap- 
pear some day with Bradstreet's rating on their fore- 
heads and their balance sheets pinned upon their 
breasts. In society ? " Great is paint ! " Beau 
Brummel and Miss Flora McFlimsey still live. Hands 
and feet, bright eyes and auburn hair, red lips, fair 
complexion, pearly teeth, buttered words, warm kisses 
and solemn vows — how often they are wholly false : 
how seldom wholly true. Or in politics ? There is 
probably as much of honesty here as in any depart- 
ment of life, because the politician is perforce under 
the people's eyes ; his business is everybody's busi- 
ness, and he must needs take heed to his ways. But 
of log-rolling and pipe-laying and wire-pulling there 
is plenty and to spare. And who is able to discern 
between the demagogue and the people's friend ? In 
the Church then, surely ? Nay. It was into this 
charmed circle that the Lord himself came to speak 
of wolves in sheep's clothing and of whited sepulchres 
and of actors wearing mabks, for this is the meaning 
of the word "hypocrite," a man under a mask. I am 
not saying that all men mean to be dishonest, but that 



320 MASQUERADING. 

there is, wittingly or otherwise, a measure of dishon- 
esty in all, and churchmen are made of common 
dust. 

" The cleanest corn that e'er was dight 
May hae some pyles o' ca.fi in." 

So that having done our best, as human nature goes, 
we may still confess that Robbie Burns was not wholly 
without excuse when he sang : 

" O ye wha are sae guid yoursel', 
Sae pious and sae holy, 
Ye've nought to do but mark and tell 
Your neebor's fauts and folly. 

'* Ye see your state wi' theirs compared, 
And shudder at the niffer; 
But cast a moment's fair regard, 
What makes the mighty differ ? 

" Discount what scant occasion gave 
That purity ye pride in, 
And (what's aft mairthan a' the lave) 
Your better art o' hidin'." 

In view of these facts, there are certain considera- 
tions which we may profitably dwell on. 

I. God knows us. We may deceive others. Indeed 
in the interest of self-protection we feel obliged to do 
it. A man whose name is a synonym for purity of 
character said once, " If there were a window in my 
breast, I would not dare to walk along the streets 
lest the very boys should throw stones at me." 

We may deceive ourselves. Indeed we scarcely 
can avoid doing so. It was very well for Thales to 
say, " Man, know thyself." But how is a man to 
know himself when his constant effort is to avoid ap- 



MASQUERADING. 



321 



pearing in propria persona ? They say that Edwin 
Booth played Hamlet in such a manner that he lost 
all consciousness of self, and in course of time there 
were those among his friends who asserted that he 
began to look like Hamlet and think like him. 

But we cannot deceive God. " O Lord, thou hast 
searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down- 
sitting and mine uprising ; thou understandest my 
thought afar off. Thou hast beset me behind and 
before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowl- 
edge is too wonderful for me ; it is high; I cannot 
attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or 
whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend 
up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in 
hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of 
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the 
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness 
shall cover me ; even the night shall be light about 
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but the 
night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light 
are both alike to thee." 

Our physicians have long been wishing that some 
method might be devised by which they could look 
into the human frame and observe the processes of 
life. A recent application of electricity is said to 
make this possible. Under the powerful light the 
physical system is illuminated ; the hand becomes 
translucent, showing bones and veins, the quivering 
of sinew and the circulation of blood. It was not 
necessary, however, for God to await this develop- 
ment of science. His eyes have ever searched us 
through and through ; all things are naked and open 
before him. 



322 



MASQUERADING. 



II. Life proves us. We speak of passing through a 
probation here. We are always under fire and acid, 
so that character is brought out more and more as 
the years pass on. 

We may carry on our deceptions voluntary and 
involuntary for a season with success. A bookkeeper 
recently confessed that for twenty years and more he 
had been tampering with day-book and ledger, mak- 
ing artificial offsets and drawing false balances ; but 
all the while his deception was growing more and 
more tense ; the denouement was only a question of 
time. The trouble with this man was that he allowed 
himself to live too long. He went too far with the 
play. The curtain should have fallen before the fifth 
act. 

Then exposure ! There are exposures every day. 
The newspapers are full of them. How we gloat over 
them like jackals at their prey. If men who are con- 
scious frauds live long enough, life will certainly ex- 
pose them. So Ahab went up to battle at Ramoth- 
Gilead well clad in a disguise. Quite safe he thought; 
but, alas ! in the midst of the conflict, an arrow, shot 
at a venture, smote him between the joints of the har- 
ness and he fell, crying, " Carry me out, for I am 
wounded and discovered ! " 

Then come the retributions of time. Our un- 
staged actors are sometimes given " benefits " on the 
mimic stage, but never in real life. Aaron Burr, dur- 
ing his later years, declined to attend church because 
no man would open a pew door to him. The former 
apostle of aesthetics, who has recently been exposed 
in London, is so wholly under the ban that his very 
name is unspoken. No mercy for him ! Why ? He 
is no more false and vicious and abhorrent than ever; 



MASQUERADING. 



3 2 3 



but he has played out his fifth act. There are ten 
commandments which severally begin, " Thus saith 
the Lord." There is an eleventh which begins, " Thus 
saith the devil " ; and it is, " Thou shalt not be found 
out." 

III. Death unmasks us. Therefore we speak of 
death as the King of Terrors. Were it otherwise, 
death would be to us the fairest of God's angels. 
But, alas ! at the border line between time and eter- 
nity, all dominoes fall off. 

Go out into the graveyard and heed not the 
monuments there nor the brave epitaphs, for in these 
are preserved all the adventitious distinctions of life ; 
but go down under the sod, where the resurrection 
angel will go, and fill your hand with mingled earthy 
and lo ! all the analytic chemists on earth cannot de- 
termine which is millionaire's and which is beggar's 
dust. 

Go up to the great assize. See yonder on the 
throne the Honest Judge, the only Honest Judge earth 
ever saw, and mark how he determines all cases in 
equity. Pilate and Herod are before him, cowering 
and hiding their faces. Here greatness seems little 
and humility is great. Death is a mighty leveller. 
Nero drops his sceptre and Alexaminos, the Christian 
slave who toiled in his kitchen, is crowned with honor. 
Here Catharine de Medici, the enchantress of popes 
and prelates, wrings her blood-stained hands, and the 
Magdalene, who wept upon the Master's feet, passes 
into the endless life. Here is a universal adjustment; 
the crooked things are all made straight ; there are 
no deceptions now. 

Honest at last ! Honest at last and forever. The 
hypocrite's hope is swept away like a spider's web. 



3 2 4 



MASQUERADING. 



All deceivers have been turned out of their refuges of 
lies and their soul shines as the day ; for the light of 
God shines through them. 

And what are the lessons from all this ? One 
only : Be honest ; be true. Provide things honest in 
the sight of all men. Live up to your profession. 
Esse quam videri — to be rather than to seem — is the 
motto for an upright life. Live in singleness of heart, 
as unto Christ ; not with eye-service as men-pleasers, 
but doing the will of God from the heart. 

Let us be true to ourselves. Nature is truth. 

" To thine own self be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

But we cannot be true to ourselves unless there is a 
reserve of character within us. The difference be- 
tween the wise and foolish virgins was that the lat- 
ter took "no oil in their vessels with their lamps." 
Their lamps burned, too, but the wicks were charred 
and the flame flickered and went out. It is only the 
man with character who can dare to show himself as 
he is. And the basis of character is in the imitation 
of Christ. He is the only honest man whom God 
ever looked on. Therefore, he said, "This is my be- 
loved Son in whom I am well pleased." He was what 
he seemed to be. He spake what he felt. He was 
ever true to his convictions. He hated sham and 
pretence. He was in all his thought and character 
as transparent as the day. The nearer we approach 
to his character, the closer do we come to the full 
stature of a man — frank, honest, ingenuous manhood. 

The most heart-searching prayer that ever was of- 
fered, the bravest and most awful, is that prayer of 



MASQUERADING. 



325 



David : " Search me, O God, and try me." The 
man who made that prayer had proven his valor in 
many brave struggles. As a boy he had gone down 
into a pit on a snowy day and slain a lion ; as a strip- 
ling he had gone out with a sling against the cham- 
pion Philistine ; as a man he had met the hosts of the 
enemy, again and again, on the high places of the 
field ; but never had David done so brave a thing as 
in this prayer, " O God, search me." Can we make 
that prayer ? Can we bow down and plead with God 
to throw into the centre of our hearts the searchlight 
of his own fierce gaze, and expose our frailties and 
falsities? Herein is all of confession and penitence. 
Lord, search me ; show me myself ; try me and see 
if there be any evil way in me ; then forgive the evil 
for Jesus' sake, and lead me in the way everlast- 
ing ; lead me in the sunlit path of true, honest, in- 
genuous Christlike manhood. 

" Lord, make me like Thyself ; 
Lord, make me be myself ; 
Seeming as one who lives to Thee 
And being what I seem to be." 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



11 Then said Jesus to those Jews that believed on him, If ye continue in my 
words then are ye my disciples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, and 
the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's 
seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou. Ye shall 
be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Who- 
soever c^mmitteth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not 
in the house forever : but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore 
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."— John 31-36. 

Our Lord was here speaking to certain Jews 
who "believed on him." Their faith, however, must 
have been very rudimentary. They had seen his 
miracles and were prepared to say with Nicodemus, 
" No man can do these miracles that thou doest except 
God be with him." They had heard his sermons, 
marvellous sermons on the tremendous truths of the 
endless life, and they were prepared to say like the 
Roman guard, " Never man spake like this man." 
But it was Christ's purpose to lead them on to a 
larger measure of faith and devotion. " If ye would 
be my disciples," said he, "continue in my word and 
ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free." 

But these words awoke within them a spirit of re- 
sentment. " We are the children of Abraham," they 
retorted, " and were never in bondage to any man. 
How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free ? " Had they 
forgotten then the long captivity in Egypt, the weary 

(326) 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



3 2 7 



toiling in the brick-yards, the hard task-masters and 
the whips of scorpions ? Or had they forgotten the 
seventy years of their Babylonish captivity, when 
they hanged their harps by the willows and wept 
at the remembrance of Zion ? Or were they 
oblivious of the fact that at this moment they were 
ground down under the most absolute tyranny the 
world had ever seen ? They had lost all the func- 
tions of self-government, were paying tribute to 
Rome, and the standard of the golden eagle was 
at the temple door. Nay, these things they re- 
membered well ; but their reference was to moral 
bondage. As the seed of Abraham, they were a 
chosen people. They might be bound with fetters 
and manacles, but they could not be deprived of 
their birthright of spiritual freedom. 

And it was in this sense that Jesus understood 
them, as his answer indicates : "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of 
sin. Ye say ye are children of Abraham, but have 
ye forgotten that Abraham had two sons ; the one of 
whom dwelt in his father's house and received the in- 
heritance, while the other was sent forth into exile to 
make his home among the fastnesses of the hills ? 
It is quite possible, therefore, for you to be children 
of Abraham and yet be in spiritual bondage." But 
the only begotten Son of God has power of manu- 
mission; " If the Son therefore shall make you free, 
ye shall be free indeed." 

The freedom here referred to is the same men- 
tioned by the Apostle Paul in writing to the Gala- 
tians : " Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made you free." And, also, in his letter 
to the Romans where he says, " The creation itself 



328 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 

The Jews had been looking for a Messiah to de- 
liver them from the tyranny of the Roman govern- 
ment; he was expected to come and restore the glory 
to Israel. No doubt the Jews here addressed supposed 
that Jesus was this promised Messiah and would set 
up his throne in Jerusalem as the successor of David. 
His words, however, must have disillusioned them. 
He had come to be a liberator, indeed, but from 
spiritual bondage ; as when he said at the outset of 
his ministry in Nazareth, that he had come to preach 
deliverance to the captives, to bring those whose 
souls had been led captive by the prince of darkness 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

We are always in danger of a misapprehen- 
sion with respect to freedom. In the time of 
the Reign of Terror the mobs of Paris wrote upon 
the dead walls, " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ! " — ■ 
words of which they had no true apprehension what- 
ever. To them liberty meant license ; equality meant 
the levelling down of all who had attained to great- 
ness ; and fraternity meant the spoliation and distri- 
bution of all things. On her way to the guillotine 
Madame Roland, as she passed the statue of Freedom 
in the Place de la Revolution, is said to have ex- 
claimed, "O Freedom ! what crimes are perpetrated 
in thy name ! " It is greatly to be feared that there 
is a false notion of moral freedom in many minds. 
What is this " glorious freedom " into which the only 
begotten Son of the Father brings us ? 

I. Negatively. It is a deliverance from three task- 
masters, to wit: sin, the bondage of law, and the 
tyranny of self. 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



329 



(1) It is a deliverance from sin. The man who is 
morally enfranchised is made free not in sin but from 
sin. To be free in sin is indeed an impossibility, 
" For he that doeth sin," that is habitually, " is a 
bondslave of it." The man who goes reeling through 
the street this morning after a night of revelry, is as 
really a slave as if the drink habit in personal form 
were seen to be scourging him at every step. So also 
are the victims of impurity and the gaming habit and 
avarice and unholy ambition. They are enslaved as 
Samson was after his eyes were put out and he was 
compelled to sit grinding like a woman at the mill in 
the doorway of Dagon. Sin is a hard taskmaster ; it 
welds our fetters while bidding us eat, drink and be 
merry, delighting ourselves in the way of our heart 
and the sight of our eyes. I am under the dominion 
of the vices that control me. My soul is in pawn to 
them and can never be free till the Mighty One shall 
redeem it ; but in Christ " sin hath no more dominion 
over us." 

(2) In Christ we are delivered from the bondage of the 
law; not from the government of law, but from its 
tyranny. For there are two ways of obeying the law. 
Here is a gang of workmen on the highway breaking 
stone ; they are clothed in prison garb and every one 
has a ball and chain upon his ankle while the task- 
master stands near by. Ask them if they love the 
law, and they will answer that they hate it. The 
law is their enemy ; the law has put that chain upon 
them ; the law hath clothed them in those garments 
of shame, and they hate it. Ask them if they keep 
the law, and they will answer that they keep it per- 
force. Are they not under the eye of the taskmaster ? 
To break the law would be to incur a deeper punish- 



33° WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 

ment : they dare not do it. But here are citizens go- 
ing about the street in pursuance of their ordinary- 
vocations who keep the law because they are in 
sympathy with the purposes of the Commonwealth. 
They observe the statutes and ordinances because 
they desire the well-being of the community. To 
them obedience is not a matter of necessity but of 
second nature. In both these cases the law is kept; but 
the gang of prisoners are in bondage under it, while 
the others are free. In like manner there are those 
who obey the divine laws because of the stern require- 
ment of duty ; while there are others, such as the 
Son has made free, who keep the law because they 
love it. They have entered into what the Apostle 
James calls, " The perfect law of liberty." So as Paul 
says, " We have not received the spirit of bondage 
again to fear ; but the spirit of adoption whereby we 
cry, Abba Father." The moral code is an expression 
of the government of heaven of which we know our- 
selves to be a part ; and the lawgiver is our Father, 
and we obey because we love him. 

(3) In Christ we are also liberated from the tyranny 
of self . A man has, so to speak, two selves or two 
natures, a higher and a lower. Paul calls them the 
old man and the new man, or the old Adam and the 
new Adam. And these two are ever in conflict striv- 
ing for the mastery. There is a war in my members 
so that the good I would, that I do not ; and the evil 
that I would not, that I do. Our eternal destiny de- 
pends upon the outcome. I am sensible of the fact 
that there is something divine in me. I feel my heart 
moved at times with noble aims and purposes and 
aspirations. But, on the other hand, I am drawn 
down by my baser nature. The Son of God offers 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 331 

his aid in determining this strife. He comes like the 
stranger who stood in Florence before the fowler's 
shop, fresh from the horrors of a Moslem prison, gaz- 
ing on a cage of birds that were beating their poor 
wings against the bars ; out of his paltry treasury, 
he purchased the cage and opened it and watched 
with a great joy the poor prisoners as they mounted sky- 
ward. Our Master has come to give freedom to the 
nobler aims and purposes that struggle within us, the 
" winged things," as Plato called them, to soar aloft 
in their native air free, free in the glorious liberty of 
the children of God. 

II. But this freedom has a more positive side. We are 
delivered from the bondage of the law and from the 
tyranny of self, but unto what ? 

(1) Christ makes us free in the glorious quest of truth. 
A man is never so noble as when searching for truth, 
for its price is above rubies. The gold of Ophir can- 
not be compared with it. 

No man is a true follower of Christ who is not 
in the best and highest sense a free-thinker. But 
this is not to say that in his pursuit of truth he 
refuses to recognize certain laws and limitations. 
How does a pirate ship differ from a merchant- 
man ? In having no " papers," in sailing by no chart. 
She is a rover of the seas, going hither and yon 
at her free will in search of plunder. Fire a shot 
across her bows and she hoists the black flag, which 
means that she sails under no governmental privileges 
and recognizes no authority. Is this the type of free- 
dom ? Nay, rather the merchant ship that sails along 
her appointed course under the protection of a 
national flag and engaged in legitimate commerce. 
A true free-thinker is indeed an adventurer ; he does 



332 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



not pause at those pillars of Hercules whereon is 
written, Ne plus ultra. To him there is always more 
beyond, and he sails forth to those new worlds which 
ever await a bold mariner in moral realms. But here 
as everywhere there must be a recognition of just 
authority. To this end we have received the Scrip- 
tures. The Bible is the chart we sail by. A " Thus 
saith the Lord " is the end of ail controversy for us. 
His word is the truth that makes us free. 

( 2 ) We are ma de free, fu r therm ore, for the acq uisition 
of character. And character is the most desirable 
thing in all the world. There is nothing better than 
that a man should add grace to grace until he shall 
attain unto the fulness of moral stature. But in all 
this there must be a working basis. To this end 
again we have received the Scriptures ; in these we 
have a moral code, a system of ethics so perfect that 
even the enemies of revelation are slow to find fault 
with it. To undertake the building of character 
without such an authoritative code is to court failure ; 
hence the unveracity of the Arabs, the impurity of 
the Turks, the dishonesty of the Egyptians. It is not 
enough, however, that we shall have this ethical code ; 
there must be somewhere a living illustration of it. 
An art student does not complete his course until he 
has passed through the life-class. He must see the 
living eyes of the model, the muscles in play or in re- 
pose. So we have Jesus the ideal man ; the only one 
who ever lived on earth of whom it could be said, 
"He is as good as the law." He is our Exemplar in our 
effort to regain our lost glory, — the likeness of God 
In him we find the free play of all our faculties along 
the lines of virtue and manhood. We make our best 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



333 



progress toward character when we go looking unto 
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. 

(3) In Christ we are brought forth into the privileges 
of service. Truth is of no value as an abstract thing. 
The graces of character are nothing in themselves. 
Gold and silver in bags are worthless, worthless until 
they be put into circulation for the feeding of the 
hungry, the clothing of the naked, and the carry- 
ing on of the industries of the world. The great 
matter is usefulness. How shall I invest my capital 
of truth and character so as to make them tell for my- 
self, my fellow-men, and God ? 

Here again the Scriptures are our guide. They 
tell us of the kingdom. This word is indeed the key 
of the gospel. The Master speaks over and over of 
this Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of 
Truth, the Kingdom of Righteousness, the Kingdom 
of Heaven on earth. His word is, " Seek ye first of 
all the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all 
the lower things shall be added unto you." 

It is a critical point in the life of a young man or 
young woman when the question is reached, What 
trade or profession shall I choose ? What shall be my 
life-work ? There is a point in the higher life of every 
man when he is called upon to determine what shall 
be his nobler pursuit. The true answer is this: 
"Seek ye the kingdom of God." "His servants ye 
are, to whom ye obey." No one is free who is not 
the servant of God. 

The highest possible point of manhood was 
reached in the experience of Jesus Christ when, put- 
ting the purple cup to his lips under the olive trees in 
Gethsemane, he cried, " O my Father, not my will 
but thine be done." When self is surrendered to the 



334 



WHOM THE SON MAKES FREE. 



highest and best> when the human will is brought in- 
to line with the divine will, when the soul is en rapport 
with all the wishes and purposes of the Mighty One, 
then man is free ; free to do only that which is best 
and noblest ; delivered from the bondage of the base 
and unworthy, unfettered from the law to glory in 
obedience. For the best definition of freedom is not 
lawlessness, but perfect obedience to perfect law. 

The national symbol chosen by our fathers to 
represent the principle of civil and ecclesiastical free- 
dom, for -which they jeoparded their lives, their 
fortunes and their sacred honor, was the eagle. 
Why? Because it has an eye to gaze undazzled at 
the mid-day beam. Because it has a heart of courage 
to make its home in the dizzy heights Because it 
has a wing to catch the breath of the rarest ether and 
strong enough to defy the fiercest storm. The air is 
its home, its native element ; and here on poised wing 
it stands for freedom. A man is never free save in 
his element. Freedom is conformity to the laws of 
our being. I am free when law and truth and right- 
eousness flow in the very current of my blood. I am 
free when I can say, " I rejoice to do thy will ; I will 
run in the way of thy commandments." " They which 
wait upon the Lord shall mount up as on eagle's 
wings. They shall run and not be weary, they shall 
walk and not faint." They are free forever, joyous 
and triumphant, because their lives are hid with 
Christ in God. 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 

" And John answered him saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy 
name, and he f olloweth not with us : and we forbade him because he fol- 
loweth not with us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no 
man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of 
me." — Mark ix. 38, 39. 

The earthly life of Jesus was drawing rapidly to its 
close. " I must work while it is day," said he, " for 
the night cometh when no man can work." So much 
remained to be done ! He was now on his last mis- 
sionary journey. For the multiplying of his influence 
he endowed seventy of his followers with peculiar 
gifts of speech and healing, and sent them out among 
the villages of Galilee. It was a notable excursion. 
In due time the itinerants returned with a glowing 
report of their success : " Even the devils," they cried, 
"have been subject unto us ! " 

But one episode of that journey has its melancholy 
aspect. It is here related by John with peculiar zest : 
" We saw one casting out devils in thy name and we 
forbade him, for he followeth not with us." The 
Lord deliver us from bigotry — the bigotry that in- 
vented the rack and thumb-screw, that has kindled 
the fagots of a thousand human holocausts, that has 
set rivers of blood a-flowing, that alienates friends 
and fills the world with confusion. We are none of 
us wholly free from it, but some of us are lament- 
ably full of it. Hark to the voices that cry, " The 

(335) 



336 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



temple of the Lord ! the temple of the Lord are we! " 
Poor souls — narrow contracted, intolerant. It was 
the thought of such ecclesiasticism as this that led 
Emerson to say, 

" I like a Church, I like a cowl, 
I love a prophet of the soul ; 
And on my heart monastic aisles 
Fall like sweet strains and pensive smiles : 
But not for all his faith can see, 
Would I that cowled Churchman be !" 

The ways of the Salvation Army are not our ways, 
nor are its thoughts our thoughts, but for that mat- 
ter neither are God's ; and this is no reason why we 
should dogmatically disapprove and denounce them. 
We are living in a broad world whose circumference 
is 25,000 miles ; there is room enough for all to gang 
their ain gait without jostling. It is likely that the 
Salvation Army has blundered on many occasions, 
but in all this world of ours there is no such blunder 
as intolerance. Why should we find fault with those 
who are our brethren in the fellowship of great fun- 
damental truths and principles ? There are devils 
enough in the world and friends of the devil and 
soldiers of the devil, without our assailing those who 
are casting out devils in Jesus' name even though 
they " follow not with us." 

I. As to the origin of the Salvation Army. The 
movement began in 1865.* Its originator was the 
Reverend William Booth. God has always the right 
man for the hour. The clock struck and Saul of 
Tarsus said, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" 



* This sermon was preached on the 30th Anniversary of the 
Organization of the Salvation Army. 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



337 



The clock struck again and Peter the Hermit went to 
and fro waving the red cross banner and crying, 
Deus vult. Again the hour struck and Luther nailed 
his Ninety-five Theses to the chapel door. The 
clock struck again and John Wesley was born. 
The clock struck once more and William Booth ap- 
peared and began his work. He had been a minister 
of the English Church and was frozen out ; he had 
joined the Wesleyans only to find that he was unable, 
by the approved methods of that Church, to reach 
the great lapsed multitude. He cut loose now, be- 
came an independent minister and drifted to East 
London, — East London, where the unchurched 
masses most do congregate ; the rendezvous of thieves 
and hoodlums, the home of the desolate and the 
abandoned. 

Do you know East London ? All efforts to pene- 
trate its entrenched sin had been vain. A benevolent 
minister went down on a certain occasion with his 
" top coat " over his arm and began to preach. There 
was no difficulty in attracting a crowd. " I'll hold 
your coat, your Reverence," said one. "I'll hold 
your cane," said another. And still another, " I'll 
hold your hat." He preached with all earnestness 
and the spirit of exhortation, and at the close of his 
discourse looked about for his three servitors. Then 
his indignation burst forth : " I came down here at 
considerable inconvenience to do you good," said he, 
"and you have stolen my hat and my top coat and 
my gold-headed cane. I wash my hands of you. I 
give you over to your fate. The Lord have mercy 
on you." This was the neighborhood toward which 
William Booth now turned his attention and with 
such success that we are beginning to think that 



338 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



possibly he has solved that long-vexed problem, 
" How to Win the Masses." 

II. The name of the Salvation Army. Observe, it 
does not profess to be a church. We believe in the 
Church as a divine institution. Ecclesia is a great 
word and it accurately characterizes the goodly fel- 
lowship — those who are " called out " from the world 
to serve God. It is to be lamented, not that the Sal- 
vation Army does not call itself a church, but that it 
has not more distinctly avowed its friendly attitude 
toward the universal Church of Christ. As it cele- 
brates no sacraments, it would appear reasonable that 
it should encourage all its converts to sit down in the 
fellowship of those who in the various churches keep 
the last injunction of their Lord, " Do this in remem- 
brance of me." 

But why an "army"? Because there's war. Did 
not Christ come into the world, you say, to reign as 
Shiloh, Prince of Peace ? Did not the angels sing 
his welcome, " Glory to God in the highest ; peace on 
earth toward men of good will " ? Aye. But he also 
said, " I am come not to send peace on the earth, but 
a sword." His purpose is indeed pacific toward the 
children of men ; but as to the powers of darkness 
his gospel means war to the blade, war to the hilt, 
war to the death, war without quarter, war without 
compromise, a continuous assault upon the strong- 
holds of iniquity, an unremitting effort to destroy the 
works of the devil. No peace, but incessant war 
until the gates of heaven shall open and the last rein- 
forcements shall come forth — One riding in front in 
garments dipped in blood, having upon his vesture 
and thigh a name written, the Lion of the Tribe of 
Judah ; and following after him a great multitude on 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



339 



white horses and robed in white, their garments 
washed in the blood of the Lamb. Then the 
great dragon and his hosts and the clash of armies 
in mid-heaven. Then the gaping pit and the 
smoke of torment ascending up and the cry, 
Babylon is fallen! And then the throne set above all 
thrones and Jesus coming to reign where'er the sun 
doth his successive journeys run. No peace until 
then, and afterwards peace forever. Meanwhile, the 
churches all have need of the rigid and unquestion- 
ing obedience of military service. To "join the 
Church " is indeed enlistment, and there is no dis- 
charge in this war. He is the blessed one who can 
say like Paul at the outer verge of life, " I have fought 
a good fight ; henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous 
judge shall give me at that day." 

III. As to the principles of the Salvation Army. We 
are not likely to agree with General Booth and his 
followers in all particulars of doctrine, but they are 
right with respect to the great granite truths. It is 
doubtful if they would endorse all the five points of 
Calvinism ; but they have five doctrinal tenets which 
are beyond all controversy, as follows : 

(i) Sin. They believe in sin. How could it be 
otherwise ? The parish of the Salvation Army is the 
slums ; sin there exists in its most flagrant and ab- 
horrent form ; sin in rags and poverty, sin hungry 
and cadaverous, sin under the ban of society, sin 
with the prison mold upon it, the sin of the prodigal 
son in the far country feeding swine, sin as Milton 
painted it, 

" Black it stood as night, 
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, 
And shook a dreadful dart." 



34° 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



(2) Hell. There is no modification of the nomen- 
clature of retribution. Hell, the word that character- 
izes the penalty of sin, the fire unquenchable, the worm 
that gnaws and gnaws and gnaws and never dies, the 
outer darkness of lonely reproach and divine aban- 
donment, shame, remorse for ever and ever. 

(3) Revelation. The Salvation Army believes in 
the Bible. It does not devote itself to the study of 
the outward form of Scripture. It has nothing to say' 
with respect to the Higher Criticism. It cares noth- 
ing about inductive and deductive methods. It does 
not worry itself as to the mode of inspiration. The 
sin-stricken multitude who form the constituency of 
the Salvation Army are concerned about such great 
questions as, "What shall we do to be saved?" and 
"How shall God be just and yet the justifier of the 
ungodly?" and that tremendous problem, " What shall 
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul?" And they say, " Here is a Book which 
professes an answer to those heart-rending questions. 
Let us open it and see." The beggar who stands in 
front of Delmonico's does not devote his attention to 
the urns of fragrant bloom beside the doorway or to 
the gorgeous livery of the men in waiting there ; his 
eyes are fixed upon the tables within, and what he 
wants is food. So is it with the great multitude who 
pass by our church doors and who constitute the par- 
ish of the Salvation Army ; deep down in their hearts 
they are asking the way of everlasting life. The 
Bible is nothing to them except as it answers this 
need. 

" Within this sacred Volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries ; 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



341 



Happiest they of human race 
To whom the Lord hath given grace 
To read, to think, to fear, to pray, 
To lift the latch and force the way." 

In addition to the foregoing truths there are two 
others which are emblematically written upon the 
banners of this organization — red banners bearing 
the legend, Fire and Blood. 

(4) Blood : the blood of Jesus Christ who gave 
himself for us. The veterans of the armies of the 
Civil War have been marching through the streets. 
They are proud of their membership in the Grand 
Army of the Republic. God bless the Grand Army. 
But they will bear me witness that it was not their 
imposing parades, not their martial music, not their 
gorgeous uniforms, not their waving banners that 
saved the country. It was blood that saved the coun- 
try ; — the blood of Colonel Ellsworth, the blood of the 
rank and file, the blood of Abraham Lincoln ; an aw- 
ful trail of blood from the streets of Baltimore west- 
ward to the Mississippi, southward staining the waters 
of that great flood to its mouth, and north and east 
again to the gates of Richmond. I say nothing 
against the historic creeds and ethical codes of the 
universal Church when I declare that God's power 
unto salvation abides not in them. We are saved by 
our " grip on the blood"; by a vital faith in the 
atoning power of the blood of Jesus that cleanseth 
from all sin. 

(5) Fire : a reference to the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost and fire on the day of Pentecost. On that 
memorable occasion the Spirit rested upon the fore- 
heads of the disciples in lambent flame. The expres- 
sion is significant, " Tongues of fire.'' The men and 



342 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



women of the Salvation Army are all instructed that 
they are to be witnesses for Christ. The enthusiasm 
of their conversion must be made to express itself 
in open avowal. The " testimonies " of these con- 
verts is often of the rudest sort. I have heard them 
in the slums of our own cities, in our frontier towns, 
in an open square in Ayrshire. I followed the drums 
one night to Seven Dials in London and there heard 
such testimonies to God's goodness — in expressions 
wholly innocent of grammar and rhetoric — by men 
and women whose faces were scarred with the memo- 
rials of vice — such testimonies as might make an 
angel weep for joy. 

IV. As to the methods of the Salvation Army. These 
are all briefly comprehended in the aphorism, " Any- 
thing to win the souls of men." 

(i) " Go out after the people." Go out into the 
streets, into the purlieus, up into the attics, down into 
the basement, into the uttermost slums ; anywhere to 
get your audience. " First catch your hare." Go 
out with drums and tambourines and popular airs. 
Go out like the Pied Piper of Hamelin : 

" From street to street he piped advancing, 
And step by step they followed dancing." 

Then to the barracks! Before we criticise, let us 
seriously inquire if this plan is not wisely adapted to 
the circumstances of the case. Your fishermen on the 
coast of Maine when they go out after mackerel take 
with them a bucket of toll-bait — minced menhaden ; 
on reaching the deep water they scatter the toll-bait 
generously on either side of the boat ; and lo, the fish 
come following after. The drum and fife of the Sal- 
vation Army are their toll-bait, and the wisdom of 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



343 



this method is demonstrated by the success which has 
attended it. 

(2) " Get the attention of the people and hold it." 
On reaching the barracks there is no moment of dull- 
ness. The drum and the volley and the knee drill 
and the popular air keep the audience constantly on 
the quivive. Prayers and testimonies are brief. At- 
tention is not suffered to flag for a instant. Sidney 
Smith said, " A sparrow fluttering in the church is an 
antagonist whom the profcundest theologian in Eu- 
rope cannot master." We may not be able to use the 
methods of the Salvation Army in holding the atten- 
tion of our people ; but why should we ? At the re- 
cent intercollegiate sports I observed that the sprint- 
ing matches were announced by the firing of a gun, 
which turned every eye in the great assemblage to- 
ward the athletes. Everything in its place. The 
firing of a gun for a similar purpose would be mal- 
apropos in this company. Our friends of the Salva- 
tion Army are not seeking to win the people who are 
in habitual attendance at Fifth Avenue churches. 
They adapt their methods to their parish. 

(3) " Clinch the impression here and now." The 
man who falls into the clutches of the Salvation Army 
is not allowed to escape until all resources are ex- 
hausted in bringing him to final and decisive accept 
ance of Christ. He is personally importuned. He 
is persuaded to take his place among the " seekers " 
in the foremost seats, and when under conviction he 
is exhorted to persist until he is sensible his sins are 
forgiven. Then the testimony ; he rises and confesses 
the goodness of God, and the drums beat and the 
banners wave and the barracks are filled with halle- 
lujahs. This, however, is only the beginning. He is 



344 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



now in the hands of zealous and prayerful friends. 
By night and day they accompany him and hold him. 
They put on him the uniform of the Army, so that 
wherever he goes, it is as if his forehead bore the 
name of his new Master. 

A few years ago, on a visit to the home of my 
boyhood, I was conversing with a few familiar friends, 
when a man wearing the uniform drew near. " You 
do not know me?" he said; "I am Ben Jones." I 
knew him then, for we had been at the old red school- 
house together. As the years passed on I had heard 
of his wild life. I had seen his name upon the dead 
walls as a clown in a travelling show. He continued, 
" I understand you do not approve the methods of 
the Salvation Army. Let me tell you about myself. 
A year ago a Salvation lass invited me to the bar- 
racks, and I went. For more than six months I had 
not slept in a bed, but in the stalls with the horses or 
anywhere. I could scarcely remember knowing a 
sober day or hour. But at the barracks they persuad- 
ed me to come forward and they prayed over me ; 
and I believe that Jesus Christ forgave my sins that 
night ; and I have worn this uniform ever since, and 
the lads and lasses of the Salvation Army have stood 
by me ; and by God's grace I mean to be faithful in 
serving the Lord who has redeemed me until you and 
I shall stand together in the great multitude around 
His throne." And what could I say to that ? All my 
prejudices were dissipated in a moment. All my ob- 
jections fell flat in the presence of a man who had 
felt the power of God. 

There is a lesson here for the people of the churches. 
Our opposition to the methods of the Salvation Army 
has practically disappeared. We are all now with 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



345 



one accord approving them ; indeed I am not sure 
that our approval is not too generous. We are glad 
to have the Salvation Army going down into the slums 
after the lapsed masses. Let us be assured, however, 
that we cannot farm out our own responsibility in 
this way. The duty of reaching the unchurched mul- 
titudes still rests upon the churches. Let it no longer 
be said as a reproach against us that we die of re- 
spectability. Our doors must be open to the stran- 
gers. The hospitality of our sanctuaries must be ex- 
tended to the man in mean apparel ; and more than 
that, we must heed the injunction as addressed not 
to the Salvation Army only but to us : " Go out into 
the highways and hedges and constrain them to come 
in." It is urged against these zealous people that 
they create an undue excitement, not only in their 
own places of service, but in the open streets. In 
like manner it was said of Paul and his friends when 
they came to Thessalonica, " These that turned the 
world upside down are come hither also." O that 
the time were hastened when that reproach should be 
brought against all the churches of Christ, that they 
turn the world upside down. For, alas! this is a 
topsy-turvey world : sin has turned it wrong side up, 
and to turn it upside down is indeed to turn it right 
side up. 

Finally, here is a lesson for the impenitent soul. 
Why all this commotion ? Why this building of 
churches and preaching of the gospel? Is it much 
ado about nothing ? You have observed how easily 
a crowd can be gathered upon any of our thorough- 
fares. If a man has fallen into an excavation, they 
gather from everywhere ; scores of interested and ex- 
cited people enquiring for the doctors, for the ambu- 



346 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



lances. You yourself draw near and crowd toward 
the centre to find what has happened, and are as eager 
as anybody to render help. The Salvation Army is 
such a crowd ; somebody has fallen into a pit, they 
have gathered to help him. What eagerness! O what 
earnestness! But how does this concern you? You 
are the man in the pit! 

All are in earnest except the sinner himself, who 
should indeed be most concerned. God is in earnest. 
God's only begotten Son is in dead earnest, insomuch 
as he has made bare his arm on Calvary for the de- 
liverance of the lost. Mothers are praying, preachers 
exhorting, armies bearing the red-cross banner are 
marching to and fro. All are in earnest ; all but you, 
good friend, and you are most concerned. Suppose 
you think about it. 



THE COVENANTERS. 

" Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." — Rev. ii. 10. 

It will serve our convenience in a brief survey of 
the history of the Covenanters of Scotland to remem- 
ber a trio of important dates. The first is iji? when, 
as everybody knows, Luther nailed up his ninety-five 
theses on the chapel door at Wittemberg and preached 
his notable sermon on Justification — the doctrine of 
a standing or a falling church — taking for his text, 
"The just shall live by faith." At this time Patrick 
Hamilton, a youth of extraordinary endowments, 
was being educated in Scotland for the Church. The 
writings of Luther and other continental reformers 
fell into his hands and he determined to look farther 
into the great doctrines which lie at the foundation 
of personal and ecclesiastical freedom. He visited 
the continent and made the acquaintance of Luther 
and Melancthon. On returning to Scotland he began 
to preach, but the fulminations of Rome followed him. 
He was arrested, tried and summarily sentenced to 
die the next day. He met his doom bravely, saying, 
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." This marks the 
dawn of the Reformation in Scotland. An ambassador 
of the English throne, in reporting the defections of 
the Scottish people, afterwards said " The smoke 
of Patrick Hamilton hath infected the land." 

(347) 



348 



THE COVENANTERS. 



The second of the important dates is 1557. This 
was a year of signs and wonders. A comet was 
thought to be a fiery dragon vomiting flames, whales 
of uncommon size were cast upon the shore, and 
there were other tokens of approaching calamity. 
Mary of Scotland was at this time in France plotting 
with her mother the Queen Dowager for the suprem- 
acy of Rome. A conference was held at Edinburgh 
among the friends of the reformed doctrine to devise 
plans for averting the threatened papistical calamities. 
The Earl of Argyle was there, James Douglas and 
John Erskine ; in this conference was drawn up the 
first of the Solemn Leagues and Covenants in which 
the Protestants of Scotland pledged themselves to 
stand by one another for better, for worse, in defence 
of the freedom of the divine Word. This Covenant 
formed the basis of all similar instruments which 
were afterwards drawn up ; it was the Magna Charta 
of Scottish freedom. It gave the signal for the be- 
ginning of a long struggle marked for many years 
by fire and blood, but destined to end in glorious 
victory ; 

" For freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

The third of the important dates is 1572. This is 
universally known as the year of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew's. Let it also be remembered as the 
year when John Knox entered into his rest. He had 
long before, on graduation from the University at 
Glasgow, embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. 
The smoke of Patrick Hamilton had infected him. 
He was deposed from his professorship in the uni- 
versity by Rome, but continued to preach the gospel 



THE COVENANTERS. 



349 



of grace. He was sentenced to exile and the galleys ; 
for eighteen weary months he was chained to the 
oars in France ; then he returned and, with his life 
in his hands, resumed the preaching of the great 
doctrine of Justification by Faith. In vain did his 
former friends endeavor to turn him aside from the 
path of duty ; he was offered a bishopric and de< 
clined it. There is no more heroic figure in history 
than that of John Knox going up to Holyrood with 
his Genevan cloak over his shoulders and his Bible 
under his arm, to remonstrate with his Queen for 
usurping an unjust authority. When obliged to give 
up for a time the functions of his ministry, he took 
occasion to visit Geneva where he conferred with 
John Calvin ; then back again to Edinburgh and the 
preaching of Christ. It was now 1572. The news of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew's was brought to Edin- 
burgh, and Knox for the last time entered his pulpit 
to thunder forth his indignation against the woman 
drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood 
of the martyrs of Jesus. He climbed the stairs of his 
home — the home where every tourist pauses to-day 
to read the legend, " Lufe God above all and your 
neighbor as yourself " — and presently, having fought 
the good fight and finished his course, fell on sleep. 
It was a splendid tribute that was paid to him by the 
regent who, standing above his open grave, said : 
" Here lies one who never feared the face of man." 

Thus far the opposition to ecclesiastical freedom 
in Scotland had come from Rome. The issue was 
now to be changed and Scotland's enemy was hence- 
forth to be the English Church. The conflict took 
its rise in the introduction of a new " Book of Canons " 
prepared by Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. The 



THE COVENANTERS. 



King ordered that this book should be used in the 
Scottish Kirk ; by this the Kirk of Scotland would 
obviously be placed under the domination of a 
foreign hierarchy. It involved a vast stretch of the 
royal prerogative and was offensive to all. The 
prayer-book of Archbishop Laud was to supersede 
the Genevan liturgy which had been introduced by 
Knox. In this new formulary there was a distinct 
recognition of baptismal regeneration and there 
were also prayers for the dead. It was indeed sub- 
stantially the same as the Roman Catholic Missal. 
The Archbishop had determined, as he said, " to make 
the stubborn Kirk of Scotland stoop " ; but he 
reckoned without his host. He did not know the 
mettle of the Scottish people. On the day appointed 
for the introduction of this liturgy, the Dean of St. 
Giles in Edinburgh had begun to readtheservice when 
a strange thing happened. Down below sat Jenny 
Geddes, her soul growing more and more indignant 
by reason of this papistical mummery, until she 
suddenly arose and, throwing her stool at the officiat- 
ing clergyman, cried " Dost thou say mass at my 
lug?" In the confusion that followed the Dean 
gathered his skirts and vanished. This was the be- 
ginning of a long campaign against prelacy and the 
prayer-book. No less than sixty-eight petitions were 
addressed to the throne representing that the Church 
of Scotland was by definite act of Parliament a free 
and independent church. The King refused to 
listen ; further protests were forbidden ; the right of 
public assemblage was denied. A crisis was fast 
approaching. 

At this point it will serve us to remember another 
trio of important dates. The first of these is 1638. 



THE COVENANTERS. 



351 



This was the year of the renewal of the Solemn 
League and Covenant. It occurred in Grayfriars Kirk, 
where nobility and commons, ministers and laymen, 
with uplifted hands pledged fealty to one another in 
support of its solemn principles. The people had 
come from all quarters between the Tay and Tweed. 
When the leaders in Grayfriars had affixed their 
signatures, the parchment was brought out in the 
kirk-yard and laid upon a grave-stone ; then the 
multitudes came, and, with a solemn apprehension of 
all that it might involve, signed, — some of them with 
their own blood and others adding, "until death." 
This was followed by a General Assembly of the 
Church in Glasgow at which the Book of Canons was 
condemned and bishops were declared to have no 
authority. The king's ambassador in vain tried to 
dissolve the assemblage under pain of treason. The 
hour of adjournment having been reached, the last 
words were spoken : " We have now cast down the 
wall of Jericho. Let him who rebuilds them beware 
of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite." The King on 
hearing of these proceedings was beside himself with 
anger. He prepared an army and set out for Scot- 
land. The flaming cross was kindled on the hill tops 
to arouse the people. The Covenanters soon enlisted 
three thousand men under the command of George 
Leslie, "a little old crooked man," who had dis- 
tinguished himself under Gustavus Adolphus in the 
Thirty Years' War. They raised the bonny blue flag 
bearing the legend : " For Christ's Crown and 
Covenant." The two armies met at Dunse-law. The 
King confronted a camp all resonant with psalmody; 
he surveyed the Covenanters as they knelt in prayer; 
saw the legend upon their blue banner ; marked the 



35 2 



THE COVENANTERS. 



valor flaming in their eyes; and concluded that discre- 
tion was the better part of valor. In the conference 
that followed, he promised a free parliament and the 
full rights of the Scottish Kirk, — a promise which, as 
subsequent events showed, he fully intended to break. 
But fortunately at this time he found himself involved 
in other affairs which left him no time to waste upon 
these covenanting cattle of moss and moor. 

It was now 1649. Cromwell arose ; the man from 
the fens of England with his army of Roundheads. 
The Civil War was on. King and Parliament were 
clinched for a death-struggle. Meanwhile for eleven 
blessed years the Scottish people had peace. 

The last of these important dates is 1660, known 
to all as the year of the Restoration. Charles II. 
came to the throne under a deliberate pledge to 
support the Solemn League and Covenant ; but what 
cared he for oaths or covenants. The people of Scot- 
land rejoiced over his accession and sent James 
Sharpeas their ambassador to congratulate him; this 
man turned traitor and was made president of the 
Court of High Commission, — a star chamber of which 
it has been written " No man ever brought before it, 
was known to escape condemnation." It is needless 
to dwell upon the persecutions that followed. The 
brave defenders ,of the League and Covenant were 
exposed to imprisonment, torture and banishment. 
Women were publicly whipped through the streets ; 
ministers were branded on the faces, sold into slavery 
or burned at Edinburgh Cross. The churches were 
empty ; the jails were full. 

At this time four memorable acts were passed in 
Parliament, aimed at the complete overthrow of the 
Scottish Kirk The first of these was known as the 



THE COVENANTERS. 



353 



"Act Rescissory " by which the Solemn League and 
Covenant was disannulled and all laws for the pro- 
tection of the rights of worship were swept away. 
The second is known as the " Drunkard's Act," by 
which four bishops were ordained to take control of 
the Scottish kirk, and all ministers, except such as sub- 
mitted to their power, were prohibited from discharg- 
ing the functions of their office. Those who did not 
submit to prelatical order were banished. In 
pursuance of this procedure two hundred ministers 
took solemn leave of their parishes and a little later 
four hundred more were ejected for non-conformity. 
The third of the parliamentary acts was known as the 
" Drag Net," which was intended to prevent con- 
venticles ; that is, public services held elsewhere than 
in sanctuaries. No minister was permitted to preach 
or pray except in his own family. A reward of thirty 
pounds was offered for the arrest of ministers violat- 
ing this ordinance ; and immunity was promised in 
case a minister was slain while resisting it. The 
penalty of obduracy was death and confiscation. All 
must attend upon the ministration of the curates. 
The fourth was the " Mile Act," by which it was 
ordered that ministers must remove to a distance of 
at least twenty miles from their parishes within a 
time limit of twenty days. 

In spite of these repressive measures and of the 
sufferings, confiscations and deaths that ensued, the 
conventicles went on. The people met in the valleys 
and in the glens of the mountains ; around the rude 
pulpit were gathered the nobility and peasantry, with 
shepherds from the Lammermoors in their gray- 
checked plaids ; the horses were picketed in the rear 
so that if worship should be interrupted, the women 



354 



THE COVENANTERS. 



might speedily escape ; in front of the congregation 
the arms were stacked. Here the God-fearing people 
of Scotland, during this lamentable season of perse- 
cution, whispered their prayers and sang their praises 
with muffled voices. 

" Their preachers silenced and deposed, 
The house of prayer against them closed, 
They on the mountain heath reposed: 
But though in great perplexity, 

" Their harps were not on willows hung, 
But still in tune and ready strung, 
Till mountain echoes round them rung 
To songs of joyful melody. 

" Though from their friends and home exiled, 
Lone wanderers in the desert wild. 
The wilderness around them smiled; 

For Heaven approved their constancy." 

Then came Claverhouse, " bloody Claverhouse " 
— a name forever detestable and accursed. He led 
his troops over all the West, harrying and burning 
and torturing and slaying. He rode down conven- 
ticles until the fetlocks of his horses were red. He 
waylaid the peasants at their innocent toil and left 
them lifeless on the moor. Bloody Claverhouse ! A 
name to frighten Scottish children with to this day. 
The name of the wicked shall rot. 

The struggle reached its consummation in the 
battle of Bothwell Brig. Unfortunately the Coven- 
anters had wasted precious time in foolish dissensions, 
and they had not two charges of ammunition apiece. 
The battle was short and sharp. The Scotch were 
cut down like wheat before the sickle; the cry was, 
" Kill ! kill ! no quarter ! " Twelve hundred prison- 
ers were taken; some were tortured, not accepting 



THE COVENANTERS. 



355 



deliverance ; some were hanged and their bodies 
allowed to rot on the gibbet in chains. The 
captives were marched to Edinburgh and penned 
in a corner of Grayfriars kirk-yard in sight of the 
very grave-stone on which, twenty years before, the 
eldest of them had signed the Solemn League and 
Covenant. Here for five weary months they were 
confined with no couch but the earth and no cover- 
let but the sky; a few of them recanted, many of 
them died, and the remnant, two hundred and fifty- 
seven in all, were transported to the West Indies to 
be sold into slavery. But God in mercy aroused the 
tempest and the ship that carried them was wrecked; 
the captain refused to allow the hatches to be opened 
and all but fifty went down in the sea. 

The "killing-time" lasted for twenty-eight years, 
during which Defoe says that no less than eighteen 
thousand of the bravest of the Scottish people died 
for the faith. The supporters of the Solemn League 
and Covenant came to be known as "Wanderers." 
They hid in dens and caves of the earth. If they 
were captured, it was to suffer the boot and thumb- 
kins and shameful death. To entertain them was a 
capital crime. Brother was required to deliver up 
brother to death; fathers were banished for shelter- 
ing their sons. Among the bravest of those who 
suffered during this lamentable time was Richard 
Cameron, whose crime was refusing to say, "God 
save the king." His answer was, "How can I say 
God save the king, without being partaker of his 
evil deeds?" He was publicly excommunicated and 
hunted like a partridge among the hills; a price was 
put upon his head. He went to and fro holding field 
preachings and praying God to spare his life that he 



356 



THE COVENANTERS. 



might preach the glorious gospel to the poor people 
among the glens. At length he was surprised while 
leading a conventicle; thrice he made his famous 
prayer, " Lord, spare the green and take the ripe ! " 
He was slain and his head and hands were cut off. 
These ghastly tokens were carried to his aged father. 
Being asked "Dost thou know to whom these belong?" 
the old man answered, " To my son"; then taking them 
and kissing them, " To my own dear son. It is God's 
will. He hath made goodness and mercy follow us 
all our days." 

There is nothing to be gained by prolonging the 
lamentable story. It was brought to a close at length 
by the coming of William of Orange. He came from 
the east, from the Hollow Land, where a brave people 
had beaten back the sea and the Spanish Fury — the 
only land where at this period the conflict of civil 
and ecclesiastical freedom had been fought to a finish 
— the only land on earth where men were free to 
worship God according to the dictates of their own 
consciences. He came to cut off the House of Stuart. 
Now conditions were reversed; the prelates were 
drummed out of the reformed parishes, the psalms 
were revived in worship, and from the coming of 
William of Orange until this day the Scottish people 
have dwelt in peace, every man under his own vine 
and fig tree. 

But was it not a small matter, you say, to fight so 
long and sturdily over a mere trifle ? Was it not a 
matter of slight importance whether Knox's litany or 
Laud's prayer-book should be used in the Scottish 
Kirk ? It was indeed, says the historian Hume, " an 
inoffensive litany." Ay ; but this question was 
drawn along the lines of a tremendous principle. 



THE COVENANTERS. 



357 



The question was one of civil and ecclesiastical free- 
dom ; the rights of conscience were involved in it ; 
the freedom of worship was involved in it ; an open 
Bible was involved in it. Sto pro veritate ! The 
Scottish people were right in pledging their lives to 
the vindication of truth, and history has vindicated 
their cause. There is no country on earth which has 
had so overpowering an influence in the advancement 
of civil and religious rights. Ay ; man or nation, 
stand for the truth. Let no man take thy crown. 
Stand fast, Crag Ellachie ! 

It is a true saying, " The blood of the martyrs is 
the seed of the Church." They do not die in vain 
who die in a glorious cause. The loss of honor, the 
loss of self-respect, the loss of freedom, is far beyond 
the loss of earthly goods or life. We are the stronger 
by reason of the courage of these Covenanters who 
adventured all upon the justice of their cause. Is 
there one among us whose heart does not thrill in re- 
membrance of John Knox's daughter, Jane Welch, 
who journeyed far to entreat her king for the 
deliverance of her exiled husband ? He answered, 
" Ay, madam, one little word will release him. Let 
him but say, ' I am wrong ' " ; and she held up her 
apron with her two hands and said, " Sire, I would 
rather catch his head here ! " It is courage like hers 
that nerves us to meet the strongest trials and 
sorrows of life. 

A few years ago I stood in Grayfriars kirk-yard. 
In the felons' corner were the bodies of the martyrs 
intermingled with the dust of thieves and murderers. 
On the face of the monument was this inscrip- 
tion : 



358 



THE COVENANTERS. 



" Halt, passenger, take heed what you do see. 
This tomb doth shew for what some men did die. 
Here lies the dust of those who stood 
'Gainst perjury, resisting unto blood, 
Adhering to the Covenants, and laws 
Establishing the same, which was the cause 
Their lives were sacrificed unto the lust 
Of prelates adjured. Though here their dust 
Lies mixed with murderers and other crew 
Whom justice justly did to death pursue : 
But as for them, no cause was to be found 
Worthy of death ; but only they were found 
Constant and steadfast, zealous witnessing 
For the prerogatives of Christ their King: — 
Which truths were sealed by famous Guthrie's head ; 
And all along to Mr. Renwick's blood 
They did endure the wrath of enemies, 
Reproaches, torments, deaths, and injuries. 
But yet they're those who from such troubles came 
And now triumph in the glory with the Lamb." 

While I stood reverently before those words an old 
Scotchman, familiar with the kirk-yard, was beside 
me. I pointed to a mound and said, " Whose grave 
is this?" " I do not know." " And whose is this ? " 
" I do not know." " Is there no record of their 
names?" " Nowhere on earth." But what matters it, 
good friends, so long as we are confident of this, that 
the names of all who have been faithful unto death 
are in the Book of Life — that they are written on the 
palms of His hands close by the nail-print that tells 
of the most glorious martyrdom that ever was known. 
He never forgets. 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



" If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirnu 
ities."— II. Cor. xi. 30. 

The Sanhedrin was the governing body of Israel. 
It embraced within itself legislative, executive and 
judicial functions. It made the laws and enforced 
them and it was the court of last appeal. It con- 
sisted of seventy-two members. The highest honor 
in Jewry was to be elected to this august body. 

Seven years after the ascension of our Lord there 
was among the illustrious gray-beards of the San- 
hedrin a young man of remarkable gifts and culture. 
He was not above thirty-three years of age, but, 
having distinguished himself for learning at Gama- 
liel's school, he had already been made a Rabbi. Since 
his election to membership in this venerable body he 
had shown a remarkable zeal for the Jewish faith. 
On all sides a glorious future was predicted for him. 

At this time — 37 a.d. — the Sanhedrin was greatly 
perplexed with reference to the religion of the Naza- 
rene Prophet. The crucifixion of Jesus, which it had 
been hoped would put an utter end to this pestilent 
heresy, had been futile. Since that event his dis- 
ciples had multiplied ; on a single Pentecostal occa- 
sion not less than three thousand had been added 
to their number. The new religion was making itself 

(359) 



3 6 ° 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



conspicuous, particularly in the synagogues and at 
the great festivals. It was obvious that something 
must be done forthwith to arrest it. The mind of the 
Sanhedrists was favorable to the setting up of an 
inquisition. It was resolved to burn out the heresy. 
Saul of Tarsus, the young Sanhedrist, was chosen 
chief inquisitor ; he was in no wise averse to the 
task. He " made havoc of the Church, entering into 
every house, and haling men and women committed 
them to prison." Learning that the religion of the 
Nazarene was making rapid strides in the city of 
Damascus, he directed his attention that way. 

At noon Saul, "breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord," was 
riding with a company of horsemen along the highway 
to Damascus, when a great thing happened which 
changed the current of his life. A light from heaven 
fell upon him above the brightness of the sun and he 
fell to the earth blinded. A voice said to him, "Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He answered, 
"Who art thou, Lord?" The voice replied, "lam 
Jesus whom thou persecutest"; and Saul, trembling 
and astonished, said, " Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do ? " 

Up to this time the life of Saul of Tarsus seems to 
have been one of uninterrupted prosperity. But with 
his new life he began to tread the narrow road of 
suffering — a lane without a turning, until he entered 
upon his eternal rest. 

The first of Paul's sorrows was the temporary blind- 
ness which befell him at his conversion. It was not with- 
out a purpose that this darkness closed him in. He 
was blindfolded for initiation into the mysteries of 
the gospel of Christ. 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



361 



It is not an extraordinary thing for God to seclude 
his people in this way; closing their eyes to the outer 
world in order that they may look in upon themselves 
and upward to him. John Milton dreamed of creat- 
ing a glorious epic, but his dream would never have 
been realized, had not God withdrawn him, as he says, 
from the pleasures of youth and the vapors of wine, 
and curtained his soul in blindness. Then came his 
visions of the celestial world. Of all he ever wrote, 
there is nothing more beautiful than his " Ode on my 
Blindness." 

" When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
And that one talent, which is death to hide, 

Lodged with me useless, though my soul were bent 

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
My true account, lest he returning chide; 
' Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?' 

I fondly ask : But Patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies, ' God doth not need 
Either man's work or his own gifts ; who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state 

Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
They also serve who only stand and wait.' " 

While Saul of Tarsus was thus temporarily shut 
up within himself he saw some things which other- 
wise would never have come to him. He perceived, 
to begin with, that all his former life had been wrong; 
that his energies had been misdirected and wasted. 
He saw again the face of Stephen, to whose death he 
had consented, shining like an angel's face as he 
lifted it toward heaven under the shower of stones 
hurled upon him outside the wall, and heard him cry: 
" I see the heavens opened and the Son of man stand- 



362 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



ing on the right hand of God." He saw how griev- 
ously he himself had misunderstood the prophet of 
Nazareth. He had thought of him as a root out of dry- 
ground, having no form nor comeliness nor beauty 
that he should desire him. Now he knew that this 
Jesus was the very Christ, the long-looked-for Mes- 
siah of Israel, the veritable Son of God. He saw him 
chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely ; 
the disguised King. He knew now that the story of 
his resurrection was no fable, for he had seen Jesus in 
light and glory unapproachable, the very Jesus 
whom he had hated and whose followers he had per- 
secuted unto death, now reigning in the heaven of 
heavens, having upon his vesture and thigh a name 
written : " King of Kings and Lord of Lords ! " 
While he meditated upon these things sadly, and yet 
with the dawning joy of a great discovery, one of 
the followers of the Nazarene stood beside him, say- 
ing, " Brother Saul, receive thy sight " ; his eyes were 
opened and, behold, the world was new; the new 
Presence had come into it, and henceforth Saul of 
Tarsus w T ould know nothing but Christ and him cru- 
cified. From this time onward he was to go about 
declaring that this Jesus is the Christ. Was his a 
singular experience ? Nay; the world is new to every 
soul when the living Christ has entered into it. 

The second of PauV s sorrows was surrender j for now, 
like a captive king who puts off his crown and purple 
and passes under the yoke, he lays down all. If ever 
a man knew the meaning of unconditional surrender 
at the beginning of the new life it was this Saul of 
Tarsus. A great gulf opened between him and the 
past. He was disowned and ostracized ; home, kin- 
dred, former friendships, all gone. Those who had 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



3 6 3 



been proud of knowing him now passed him on the 
street without a word of greeting. The fond dreams 
and ambitions of his former years were gone. No 
more looking forward to preferment in the Sanhe- 
drin ; no more thought of immortality in the chronicles 
of Israel. Saul of Tarsus had thrown away his op- 
portunity; he had fallen in with the company of those 
who followed the crucified carpenter. The pride of 
his Jewish birthright and the honor of his Roman citi- 
zenship were gone. He must begin life over again 
and build on a new foundation. Most lamentable 
was the loss of his former religious connections, his 
ecclesiastical birthright. How he had loved the tem- 
ple and its imposing ceremonial ! How he had loved 
the Talmud and its rabbinical lore ! 

And was there compensation for this loss ? He 
stood within the temple and saw its walls receding; 
he felt himself in a vaster and more glorious fabric. 
Ecclesia I The Church ! The great assembly of all 
who love truth and righteousness. The walls of 
separation are down ; the veil is rent asunder ; the 
doors are open wide ; a voice is heard, " Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth " ; and 
the voice of the goodly fellowship responds, " One 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of 
us all." The soul of the new convert is exalted to 
an unspeakable joy. Ring out the old ! ring in the 
new ! A world of new interests opens before him. 
Truth, righteousness and benevolence are everything 
now. The face of his. new Master shines above and 
there is no trace of sorrow in the words with which 
he responds : " I count all things but loss for the ex- 
cellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; 
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and 



3 6 4 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and 
be found in him, not having my own righteousness, 
which is of the law, but that which is through the 
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by 
faith : that I may know him, and the power of his 
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, 
being made conformable unto his death ; if by any 
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 
dead. I count not myself to have apprehended : but 
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

The third of his sorrows was poverty. It would ap- 
pear that he was the son of a well-to-do family in 
Tarsus ; but if so, by the Jewish custom, he was now 
stripped of his patrimony — "cut off with a shilling." 
As a Rabbi he had received his livelihood from the 
temple treasury ; this also was gone. And what had 
he to fall back upon ? Fortunately it was required 
that every Jewish boy should learn a trade, and Saul, 
in his early life, had learned the art of tent-making. 
At Corinth he applies for work at the shop of Aquila 
and Priscilla, and there we find him plying his needle. 
The white hands of Gamaliel's scholar are callous 
with toil, but he assures us that in all this he rejoices 
that he was " chargeable to no man." While working 
with his needle he preached the gospel to his shop- 
mates ; when working hours were over he found his 
way to the synagogue and there reasoned with the 
people that Jesus was the Christ. 

And what was his compensation for this loss of 
patrimony and competence, for this reduction to 
the level of common toil ? "I have all things and 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



365 



abound," says he. Oh, the riches of grace ! the un- 
searchable riches of Christ! Riches! Riches! Riches! 
Every day brought its reward, a penny at evening. 
A penny only ! Ay ; but it bore the image and the 
superscription of the King. The smile of the Master 
made his penny more than the millionaire's wealth. 
It is said that Han Qua of Peking is worth sixteen hun- 
dred millions of dollars. Go into his vaults and look 
about you ; gold, silver, in bags and boxes, thousands, 
millions — nothing ! Nothing to the riches of grace. 
Dust and ashes. Go out of these vaults of perishable 
treasure and stand beside the Apostle and hear him 
rhapsodize on the immeasurable wealth of the king- 
dom : the hills are all of silver, the rivers are molten 
gold, the stars of night are Koh-i-noors, and all are 
his and all are mine and all are yours, if Christ is 
ours. "All things," says Paul, "are yours; the 
world, life, death, things present, things to come, all 
are yours, for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." 

The fourth of his sorrows was his thorn in the flesh. 
It is not of supreme importance that we should know 
precisely what this was. It may have been a dimness 
of sight, a lingering trace of the blindness that befell 
him on the Damascus highway. It may have been, 
as Cajetanus says, "a hostile angel sent of Satan to 
buffet him." It may have been a besetting sin, a 
passion or appetite coming over from the old life and 
ever striving to get the better of him. Whatever it 
was, he tells us he besought the Lord thrice that it 
might depart from him and the Lord said, " Nay ; 
but my grace shall be sufficient for thee ; for my 
strength is made perfect in weakness." This was 
better than the removal of the cause. They tell us 
that the Gold Cure takes away the appetite for drink, 



3 66 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



but God in his grace does that which is far better ; 
he leaves the appetite, but gives a man the power to 
overcome it. Is there a greater joy in all human life 
than this, — to beat down our baser nature and triumph 
over it ? Is not this manhood ? Is not this the very- 
summit of character? 

So says the Apostle : " I will most gladly glory in 
my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon 
me : I will take pleasure in my infirmities, for when 
I am weak then I am strong." Grace is Paul's sign- 
manual ; his fourteen Epistles close with it. There 
is nothing better in the world than the gift of this 
heavenly grace. This is that "fragrant myrtle " of 
which Pliny speaks, " If it be held in the hand, it will 
sustain strength and relieve all weariness." " I can 
do all things," says Paul, " through Christ which 
strengtheneth me." 

The fifth of his sorrows was persecution. This began 
with his excommunication. He was branded as an 
apostate. Then the long catalogue of suffering: "Of 
the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one ; 
thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned ; in 
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of 
robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils 
of the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the 
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
brethren ; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness — 
if I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which 
concern mine infirmities ! " 

In all these he was comforted by the thought that 
he was thus received into the fellowship of his Lord: 
"I rejoice," he says, "in my sufferings for you, and 
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



3 6 7 



The marks of his suffering are the scars of an honor- 
able service under a glorious captain: " Henceforth," 
he cries, "let no man trouble me, for I bear in my 
body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 

On one occasion, when Paul was on his way to 
Jerusalem, a certain prophet named Agabus took the 
Apostle's girdle and bound his own hands and feet 
and said: "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the 
man that owneth this girdle and deliver him into the 
hands of his foes." Then the friends of the Apostle 
began to entreat him not to continue his ominous 
journey, to which he answered: "What mean ye to 
weep and break mine heart ? for [ am ready not to be 
bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name 
of the Lord Jesus." He counted this to be his chiefest 
honor; to be permitted to enter into the fellowship of 
the sufferings of Christ, that he might also reign 
with him. 

The last of his sorrows was restraint. If ever a man 
needed room, it was Paul. Yet much of his life was 
spent in prison; under restrictions so narrow that he 
could touch the borders of his parish with his finger 
tips. Two years in prison' in Cesarea; two years in 
the Praetorian Camp at Rome ; a further season of 
confinement, probably in the Mammertine jail. Mean- 
while he was by no means idle. Out of his orison 
door went his Epistles like leaves fluttering from the 
tree of life. He preached the gospel to the guard 
who was chained to his wrist. His rejoicing was, 
that despite his own fetters and manacles, the word 
of God was not bound. 

Then he was summoned before Nero the Lion. 
He laments that on this occasion no man stood with 
him but all forsook him, and adds, " Notwith- 



3 68 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



standing the Lord stood with me and strengthened 
me." It is said that the presence of Garibaldi, dur- 
ing his Italian campaign, was of inestimable value to 
his brave men. The battle over, he passed through 
the hospitals where the wounded were groaning and 
shrieking; and when he laid his hand upon the fevered 
brow, the patient would look up, and murmuring, 
" Garibaldi ! " would set his teeth and suffer in silence. 
So was the heart of Paul strengthened by his Lord's 
presence in the supreme hour of need. 

On the occasion of his first trial Paul was deliv- 
ered out of the mouth of the Lion ; but after a brief 
respite, he was summoned again before the Imperial 
Court. Then came the death sentence, but the Lord 
stood with him and strengthened him. He was led 
out beyond the walls to the place of execution; on 
one side of him stood the headsman with his gleam- 
ing sword, on the other side stood his Lord strengthen- 
ing him and saying, " Be thou faithful unto death and 
I will give thee the crown of life "; the sword flashed 
for an instant, fell — and the next moment Paul the 
Apostle beheld the King in his beauty. 

One lesson : " No affliction for the present seem- 
eth to be joyous, but grievous ; but in the end it 
worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness to 
them that are exercised thereby." We are asked, 
" Does God send trouble ? " No and yes. He is a 
poor father who will not, on occasion, chasten his 
children for their good. It is safe to say, nevertheless, 
that much the larger portion of our sorrow comes not 
from above, but from the Prince of Darkness who de- 
sires to buffet us. Let us rejoice, however, in the 
assurance that God is stronger than Satan and able 
to overrule all his designing, so that all things shall 



THE SIX SORROWS OF ST. PAUL. 



369 



be made to work together for our good, if we love 
God. Were it not for these sorrows that befall us 
we should be like the bees of Barbadoes. Darwin says 
that these little insects, having been taken thither for 
the advantage of the luxuriant flora, found the 
weather so fine and the perfume so abundant, that they 
became profligate after the first year, ate up their 
capital, and worked no more, but went flying about 
like indolent butterflies. Let us, glory, therefore, in 
our infirmities, for in them the strength of God rests 
upon us. A great joy awaits those who subsidize all 
the conditions of this present life to the building up 
of character and goodness. "I reckon," says Paul — 
and he was quite competent to speak in these prem- 
ises, having considered the matter pro and con out 
of a rich personal experience — " I reckon that the 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be revealed 
in us." 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



" And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two 
men stood by them in white apparel ; which alsj said. Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken 
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 
him go into heaven."— Acts i. 9, 10. 

Scene : the Mount of Olives. Time : forty days 
after Christ's resurrection. A group of friends have 
come together by his appointment. While waiting 
for his appearance they speak in low murmurs of the 
years that are past, so eventful in toil and suffering 
and full of glorious promise. They speak of the future: 
it may be that their Lord will at this time proclaim his 
earthly sovereignty ; possibly this is the meaning of 
this appointment to-day; he will lead the way to 
Jerusalem, claim his sceptre, and usher in the Golden 
Age. 

Down below flows the Kedron ; how often they 
have crossed it on their way to the sacred shadows 
of Gethsemane ! In the distance are the homes and 
temples of Jerusalem. Whichever way they look is 
holy ground. The footprints of their Lord are on 
every path and hillside. Memories come crowding 
thick and fast upon the minds of these watchers of 
Olivet, — when suddenly he stands among them ! 

"Peace be unto you!" How eagerly they gaze 
upon the face that so lately was marked with anguish 

(370) 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



371 



and blood. The greetings over, they unburden their 
minds: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the 
kingdom to Israel?" He replies, "It is not for you 
to know the times or the seasons." Then he renews 
the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit; and re- 
peats the injunction, "Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel ! " They gather around him in 
love and wonder and reverence ; he lifts his pierced 
hands in blessing, and slowly rises from their midst. 
"Earth has lost her power to keep; the waiting 
heavens claim him." As he ascends through the 
yielding air his eyes are bent on his disciples ; his 
arms are outstretched, and his voice, heard for the 
last time, dies away in benediction. They utter no 
despairing cry like that of the prophet on the banks 
of the Jordan; but silently, with strained eyes, follow 
him upward into the deep blue till the clouds, like a 
white pavilion, enfold him. There are flashes of gold 
like chariots, vibrations of light like the waving of 
silken banners, then a crimson glory like the rolling 
back of heaven's gates. 

How simple, yet sublime, this parting of Christ 
from his earthly friends ! But who shall tell what 
took place behind the receiving clouds ? In what 
new form of majesty, with what swift flight through 
the rare, cloudless ether, by what celestial hosts at- 
tended and with what rhapsodies of song, was this 
King of Glory carried through the everlasting gates 
and welcomed to the holy hill ? Did these disciples 
kneeling on Olivet with upturned faces hear as from 
afar off, from beyond the distant sun, an echo of the 
ancient war cry of prophecy, " God is gone up with a 
shout, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet ! " or 
a mingled sound as of many waters, when their risen 



372 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



Lord passed through the prostrate ranks of the great 
multitude, while angels that excel in strength and 
elders with harps and vials full of odors bowed low 
and sang, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength 
and honor and glory and blessing " ; and ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand with a voice like the roll 
of the ocean, cried, " Amen," as he sat down to reign 
forever, King of kings, on the throne of heaven — 
were these the visions that passed before the be- 
wildered eyes of the disciples that day ? 

"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven ? " Two men in white apparel are before 
them, and with these words they recall the followers 
of Christ from their contemplation of the voiceless 
skies. This is no hour for reverie. Life with its 
tasks and trials is before them. The world still 
shrouded in darkness calls to them for help. It is 
theirs to reap the harvest of immortal souls. " Make 
bare your arms ; thrust in the sickle ; lo, the fields 
are white. Go ye, evangelize ! " It is no time to be 
dreaming over the past or seeking with curious eyes 
to pierce the veil behind which the Lord has disap- 
peared. " Why gaze ye upward ? This same Jesus 
who is taken up from you shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go ! " 

It is written that the disciples then went back 
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in 
the temple, praising and blessing God. A new watch- 
word was in their hearts and on their lips, " Maran- 
atha!" " Our Lord cometh." What strength and inspira- 
tion ; what earnest of victory and princely promotion, 
are in that word ! It was their morning greeting: " Our 
Lord cometh ! " Why should they tremble at the ana- 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



373 



thema or the roaring of the beasts of Ephesus ? He 
shall so come as we have seen him go into heaven. The 
eagles of hated Rome shall be dragged in the dust, 
and the followers of the Nazarene shall tread their 
enemies under foot. He shall take unto him his great 
power and reign more magnificent than Solomon in 
all his glory. By this hope they were sustained amid 
persecution until the years went by and, weary of 
watching the skies, one by one the disciples fell on 
sleep. An old man on a distant island in the JEgean 
was left alone, dreaming dreams and seeing 
visions. One day the Voice said, " Behold, I come 
quickly ! " He answered, i ' Amen. Even so come, 
Lord Jesus " ; and thus entered into rest. 

Now eighteen centuries have passed and still the 
eyes of the Lord's people are turned toward the East. 
The years pass and the ages with their slow revolving 
wheels ; and hope deferred maketh the heart sick. 
"How long, O Lord, how long ! Come, and make no 
tarrying." But the word of the Lord is Yea and 
Amen. It is not for us to know the times or the 
seasons, but his promise standeth sure. "He shall 
so come as ye have seen him go into heaven." 

I. This means that he shall surely come; as surely as 
they saw him go into heaven. There is no uncertain 
sound in the word of Scripture at this point, and a 
" Thus saith the Lord " should be to us for an end of 
controversy. It was predicted by our Lord himself 
that in the last days, by reason of his long tarrying, 
there would be misgivings ; "When the Son of Man 
cometh shall he find faith on the earth ?" So Peter 
warned the disciples that scoffers would appear in 
the latter days, saying, " Where is the promise of his 
coming?" And to meet this he reminded them how 



374 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



the deluge was long delayed, but came at last when 
it was not looked for : " As it was in the days of 
Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man." 
How was it in the days of Noah ? An old man hun- 
dreds of miles from the nearest water busied himself 
for one hundred and twenty years in the building of 
a boat, meanwhile exhorting the people to repent, 
because the Lord would overwhelm the world. Did 
they believe his word ? Nay ; they thought him de- 
mented. As they passed by, seeing him engaged 
with saw and hammer year after year, they derided 
him. " Old man, what are the signs of the weather ? 
A fine boat this ! When do you propose to launch 
it ? " But the flood came ; the flood came in an hour 
when they thought not and swept them all away. So 
says Peter, " A thousand years are with God as one 
day, and one day as a thousand years." But of his 
coming in the fulness of time there is no doubt what- 
ever. The word of the Lord standeth sure. 

II. He shall co?ne visibly. They saw him go and they 
shall see him come. Every eye shall see him and 
they also which pierced him. Hisce oculis ! "With 
these eyes ! " 

There is a thrilling representation of the Second 
Advent in the opening of the sixth seal of the Apoc- 
alypse : " And lo, there was a great earthquake; and 
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the 
moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell, 
even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when 
shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed 
as a scroll when it is rolled together ; and the moun- 
tains and islands were moved out of their places. 
And the kings and potentates and mighty men came 
forth." These were the same who had opposed the 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



375 



claims of Messiah, saying, " Let us break his bands 
asunder and cast away his cords from us." Now, be- 
hold, what panic among them ! what blanching of 
faces ! He whom they scourged and spit upon and 
nailed to the accursed tree, is very God of very God. 
" And they called upon the mountains and the rocks, 
saying, Fall upon us and hide us from the face of 
him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of 
the Lamb." The wrath of the Lamb ! Meekness on 
fire with holy indignation ! 

Meanwhile the friends of Jesus assembling from 
every quarter have turned their faces toward the 
throne. In their divine Friend they behold the chief- 
est among ten thousand and the One altogether love- 
ly. The great consummation has come. Their hopes 
are realized. The head that once was crowned with 
thorns is crowned with glory now. 

I remember as a lad hearing the story of an old 
woman who had stood in the procession that wel- 
comed Washington on his return from war. Her dim 
yes kindled with enthusiasm, as she told of that 
plendid day. How the girls of the village were clad 
i white dresses with red sashes and stars and green 
garlands — how they strewed flowers in the way of 
the conqueror. But what will be the gladness of that 
day when we shall behold our Lord coming in the 
clouds of heaven ; coming to receive his own and to 
reign King over all and blessed forever ! 

III. He shall come personally. Not merely as some 
suppose in spiritual manifestation or in demonstration 
of his moral power, but in propria persona. " This 
same Jesus whom ye have seen go into heaven shall so 
come." 

He shall be the very God-Man who dwelt among 



37^ 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



us. The blending of Deity and humanity in the in- 
carnation was not for a temporary purpose. He is 
Theanthropos forever — one with us in an eternal fellow- 
ship. His eyes are the same eyes that during his 
earthly ministry looked with compassion on suffering 
men ; his feet are the same feet that trod the high- 
ways cf Galilee ; his hands are the same hands that 
were outstretched in mercy ; his heart is the same 
heart that beat responsive to the world's need and 
broke under the burden of the world's sin. 

We shall be able to identify him by the very scars 
of his suffering. John in his vision saw him as a 
"Lamb that had been slain." His wound-prints are 
the vindication of his people's right to pardon and 
eternal life. 

"Five bleeding wounds he bears, 
Received on Calvary ; 
They pour effectual prayers, 
They strongly plead for me." 

But his body, though identical with that which he 
wore during his ministry on earth, is changed. Some- 
where between the mount of ascension and the throne 
it was changed. It must be spiritualized to fit it for 
the spiritual realm. All things in nature and grace 
are adjusted to their environment. The butterfly 
and the caterpillar are the same ; only the former 
was made to fly and the latter to crawl. In the bulb 
which is planted in the earth there is all the potency 
of the flower ; bulb and tuberose are the same ; but 
the former was made for a home beneath the ground, 
the latter to fill the atmosphere with beauty and per- 
fume. The body of Jesus to-day is the very same 
that was laid away in the sepulchre ; nevertheless a 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



377 



change beyond any of the metamorphoses of Ovid 
has passed upon it. And this is the earnest and fore- 
gleam of what shall occur with us : " For, behold, I 
show you a mystery ; we shall all be changed in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye." In all the ritual 
of the universal Church there is nothing more glad- 
some than the Burial Service in which we are accus- 
tomed to say : "We do now commit this body to the 
ground ; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; 
looking for the general resurrection, and the life of 
the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ ; at 
whose advent the earth and the sea shall give up their 
dead ; and the corruptible bodies of them that sleep 
in him shall be made like unto his own glorious body." 
In like manner John says, " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God ; but it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear, we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 

IV. He shall come gloriously. There are three 
tokens of the splendor of his advent. First, the 
trumpet. This is in the hand of the herald who goes 
before to announce the coming of the King. Second, 
the cloud j not the dust-cloud that rises when the 
chariot of the king rolls hither with outriders before 
it, but the Shekinah of the Lord, which is called " His 
most excellent glory." It is the same cloud that 
stood above the Tabernacle ; that led the children of 
Israel through their wilderness journey ; that enfold- 
ed the disciples upon the Mount of Transfiguration. 
The cloud that served as his pavilion shall, at his 
advent, be the chariot of the King. Third, the 
retinue of angels. When he came to Bethlehem a 
mother bent over his cradle, a few rustics looked in 
through the stable door, a group of shepherds knelt 



378 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



beside him, and a company of wise men came thither 
on camels to lay their gold and frankincense and 
myrrh before his feet. When he made his missionary 
journeys among the villages of Palestine, he was 
followed by a company of fishermen and other 
humble folk. One bright day in the spring of 29 he 
and his disciples with a multitude of Passover- 
pilgrims turned the spur of Olivet ; at sight of the 
domes of Jerusalem a cry was raised by those who 
went before and those that followed after : " Hosan- 
na ! hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he 
that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " But at his 
final appearing the shining seats of heaven will be 
emptied to furnish his retinue, the skies will glow 
with gilded chariots, the clouds will wave like 
banners, and he, coming on before clothed in a 
garment dipped in blood, will be followed by the 
white squadron, ten thousand times ten thousand and 
thousands of thousands, crying, " Worthy art thou 
to receive honor and glory and power and dominion 
forever and ever ! ' 

V. He will come beneficently. His coming in the in- 
carnation was to redeem the world. The word which 
he uttered on the cross, '* It is finished ! " marked the 
beginning of the end. The work goes on and will 
reach its final consummation when he appears again 
in the clouds of heaven. Then will occur the res- 
titution of all things. 

Sin will be destroyed from the earth in that day ; 
sin that ruins homes and pollutes society and blasts 
the very fields ; sin, the only curse the world has 
ever known, the trail of the serpent over all. His 
fan shall be in his hand at his appearing, and he 
shall thoroughly purge the floor ; sin shall be swept 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



379 



away as chaff is swept away by the wind, and right- 
eousness shall be established forever on earth. 

The wicked shall be banished to their own place. 
This also shall be done in mercy ; for the world puri- 
fied would be a very hell for those whose characters 
have beer established in sin. No dram-shops, no 
brothels, no gambling hells ! What would the 
wicked do ? Such an earth would be a very hell to 
them. It is, therefore, in mercy that they are driven 
to their own place. 

Then Christ shall take his place upon the throne 
and usher in the Golden Age. The mountains and 
the hills shall break forth before him into singing ; 
and the trees of the field shall clap their hands be- 
fore him. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir 
tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myr- 
tle tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for 
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. New 
heavens and a new earth. The temple of Janus shall 
be shut forever. No man shall need to say, " Know 
thou the Lord," for all shall know him, from the 
least unto the greatest. And Jesus shall reign from 
the river unto the ends of the earth. So shall be 
ushered in the Golden Age. 

But when shall these things be ? " Take heed 
lest any deceive you. If any man shall say, Lo here, 
or lo there, believe him not. For as the lightning 
cometh, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man 
be." It was believed at the close of the tenth century 
that the world was coming to an end. At that time 
wars, plagues, famines, the breaking up of social 
order, were thought to be signs of dissolution in 
heaven and earth. At the approach of the year 
iooo the people, with one consent, prepared for 



3 8o 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



the Advent of -the King. All work was suspended ; 
th a land was left untilled. Henry the Emperor 
of Germany came down from his throne, donned a 
monk's cowl, and went preaching, " Repent ye, for 
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Crowds of 
the people slept in the porches and under the 
shadow of cathedrals. The Truce of God was 
proclaimed. The pulpits rang with the visions 
of the Apocalypse. Thus the last night of the year 
was reached. All that night the streets and open 
fields and monastery roofs were filled with men and 
women watching the skies. The hours went by ; 
midnight came ; the stars paled ; the first faint 
streak of the morning was seen in the East ; and 
then, as if a great burden had been lifted from its 
heart, the world arose from its paralysis of fear and 
turned again to the earnest duties of life. "Soldiers 
of Christ," cried Sylvester, " arise and fight for Zion ! " 
The Crusades began. New plans of royal conquest 
were suggested. At this time were laid the broad 
and deep foundations of those mediaeval cathedrals 
which, with their buttressed towers, bear witness 
to-day to the enthusiasm of a world born anew 
into the hope of a vigorous life. 

It is useless- to busy ourselves with prophetic 
arithmetic. The key of Daniel's mystical figures 
hangs at God's girdle. And the question, " When 
comest thou?" is of far less importance than "What 
wilt thou have me to do ? " Hear then the conclusion 
of the whole matter : " Watch ! And again I say un- 
to you, Watch ! For yet a little while and he that 
shall come will come and will not tarry." A brave 
song was that of Charles Kingsley : 



HE SHALL SO COME. 



" Who would sit down and sigh for a lost Age of Gold 

When the Lord of all ages is here ? 
True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, 

And those who can suffer, can dare. 
Each old Age of Gold was an Iron Age too, 
And the meekest of saints can find stern work to do, 

In the Day of the Lord at hand ! " 



On the famous " dark day " in 1780 the General 
Assembly of the State of Connecticut in session at 
Hartford was greatly alarmed by the unaccountable 
veiling of the sun at high noon. A whisper passed 
among the legislators that this might possibly be the 
end of the world. At this juncture Colonel Daven- 
port arose and moved that candles be brought and 
that they proceed with the work in hand. 4 ' For,'' 
he said, " if this is indeed the end of the world, I am 
sure the Master can find us no better employed than 
in attending to our appointed tasks." 

Here is the Master's word : " Let your loins be 
girt — as for labor — and your lights be burning — as in 
vigil — and ye yourselves like men that wait for the 
coming of their Lord ; that when he cometh and 
knocketh, at even or at midnight or at cock-crowing 
or in the morning, ye may open unto him imme- 
diately." Watch, therefore, for ye know not the day 
nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh. He 
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus ! 



ADVERSARY, THE ; His Person, Power and Purpose —A Study 
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culation, and outrun it in continuous and permanent interest. " 

DECISION OF CHARACTER AND OTHER ESSAYS.— In a series 
of letters. By John Foster. 12mo, cloth, 352 pp. 
$1.50. 

JOHN McCUNTOCK, D. D., says: " His writings are 
marked by strong original thought, stimulating to the best 
principles and purposes." 

FATHER SOLON ; or, The Helper helped. — By Rev. De Los 
Lull. 12mo. cloth, 367 pp. $1.50. 

THE EPISCOPAL METHODIST says : " The author, widely 
known as a clergyman and a close student of human nature, 
brings to light a charmingly written and decidedly spirit story 
concerning the home, the factory and the church." 

GOSPEL OF THE SPIRITUAL INSIGHT, THE.— Being Stuuies 
in the Gospel of St. John. By Charles F. Deems, 
U., LLD. 12mo, cloth, 377 pp. $1.50. 

THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE says : " For point and pith, 
fresh illustrations and thorough exposition, the volumes will 
command the attention of pastors and teachers." 



CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE ; A Series of Lectures. -By 
Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Harvard College. 12mi 
sloth, 369 pp. $1.75. 

THE ILLUSTRATED CHRISTIAN WEEKLY says: "One of 
the best books we have read in a long time, — a mpnly, candid, 
noble reasonable defence of the Christian faith We do not 
see how any thoughtful person can read it in vain. Dr. Peabody 
plants himself fairly on the very postulates of scientific men, 
and proceeds to show how all that they claim for true science is 
fulfilled in the religion of Jesus." 

LOST CHAPTERS RECOVERED FROM THE EARLY HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN METHODISM.— By J. B. Wakeley, D.D., with 
a Memoir of the Author, by Rev. William E. Ketcham. 
Illustrated with steel and wood engravings. 8vo. cloth, 
640 pp. $.200. 

ZION'S HERALD says: "The volume will take its place 
among the best records of Methodist History." 

SUNSHINE FOR DARK HOURS. — By Gharles F. Deems, D. D., 
LL. D. 12mo. paper, 25 cents, net. 30 cents by mail. 
Presentation edition, half calf, uncut edges, net $1.00. 

THE UNION SIGNAL says: "This is called a book for in- 
valids ; it is equally appropriate for well people, to whom dark 
hours are sure to come. The sunshine in this book is concen- 
trated from many different soirees by the strong lens of Dr. 
Deems' personality." 

W, RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION; A Series of 
Lectures.— By Henry Calderwood, LL.D., of Edinburgh 
University. 12mo. cloth, 323 pp. $175. 

NEW YORK EVANGELIST says: "A careful perusal of 
these lectures leaves the impression that it is not science, but 
the crude speculations and unwarranted inferences of scien- 
tists and their ill-constructed followers, that conflicts with 
religion. True science supports and confirms religious truth." 

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